Encourage cultivation of rubber, coffee and tea: Mein to officers

NAMSAI, Jun 16: Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Friday advocated for taking up cultivations of rubber, coffee, tea and spices cultivation in the state and urged the officers of the agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors to gear up and perform up to the expectations.

Chairing a coordination meeting with the officers from Rubber Board Zonal Office, Guwahati and district officers at DC office here Friday evening, Mein asked the departments to immediately start the nursery preparations of rubber and tea at the government nurseries as the state government had already allocated fund of Rs 10 crore each for raising rubber and tea nurseries so that quality seedlings and planting materials are supplied to the farmers at affordable rate, reports PRO.

He asked the officers to take the help and technical expertise from Rubber Board, Coffee Board and Spice Board of India and work in coordination with them for raising the government nursery.

The deputy chief minister said that the land possession certificate issued by the district administration would be deemed as an land ownership certificate with the help of which farmers could avail the benefits of loan, subsidy and others offer under various schemes such as Chief Minister’s Krishi Rinn Yojana. 

He requested the Rubber Board, Spice Board and Coffee Board to accept LPC as a genuine document of land ownership in any of their subsidy and loan offer to the farmers.

To encourage the farmers in the sectors, he asked to get sponsored exposure visit of the interested and progressive farmers of the district through MLA LAD funds from the three MLAs of the district.

He also advised to send youths for training in bBee keeping and honey abstractions as it could be an alternative source of income for the unemployed youths.

Mein expressed concern on the dismal performance of the goverment secondary schools in CBSE Board exams in the state. He asked the district administration, officers and the teachers to analyze the lacunas in the education system and to come forth with solutions to improve the education system.

“Since, Namsai is a new district and it has the scope to be developed in to a model district,” he said and asked the heads of the departments to have a road map for its development in all fronts.

Mein said that every schemes of the govt should percolate down to the grass root level and to the actually desiring people.

He asked the government officers to perform efficiently and said there is no scope for lackadaisical attitude. 

He said that bottleneck in the working system should be improved and the office works and files should not be kept pending due to absence of an official on leave. He also stressed on streamlining the working system.

Rajgopalan Nair K S, Additional Rubber Production Commissioner, Rubber Board Zonal Office Guwahati said that the Rubber Board is planning to take up more plantations in Arunachal Pradesh and expand its cultivation in the region so that it could provide a self-sustainable development.

He sought the cooperation of Agriculture and Horticulture Departments of the state in this field to achieve their objectives.

He was accompanied by Shyama Das, Development Officer, Zonal Office, Guwahati and Biswajit Chakraborty, ADO, Rubber Board Jorhat.

Among others, Bijoy Talukdar, ADC Namsai and district heads of various departments attended the meeting.