85,000 tribal families to be rehabilitated through rubber plantation

Agartala, Apr 2(UNI) The Tripura government is planning to rehabilitate about 85,000 tribal families through rubber plantation in the state by 2020.

Inaugurating a rubber processing centre at South Bijoypur under Sabroom sub-division in Tripura's South District on Saturday, state Forest Minister Jitendra Chowdhury said that so far 14,000 tribal families has been rehabilitated through rubber plantation.

The state government's initiative was to improve the socio- economic conditions of the backward jhumia tribal families, the minister recently said and appealed to the people, including various political parties, to cooperate in implementation of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government's initiative to develop socio-economic conditions of the poor tribal population through rubber plantation.

The rehabilitation programme has been taken up in the state since 2000.

An amount of Rs 10 lakh has been spent for the processing centre, smoke house, office and labour barrack at South Bijoypur.

UNI