Centre releases Rs 65.7 crore to NE states for bamboo mission

Agartala, Aug 30 (UNI) The National Level Steering Committee has released Rs 65.7 crore for 2006-2007 to eight Northeastern states, including Sikkim, for development of technology and growth of bamboo-based economy.

Official sources here today said the funds were allocated to support the National Bamboo Mission (NBM), which has four major components - research and development, plantation, handicrafts, and marketing.

In order to support the mission, four zonal Bamboo Technical Support Groups (BTSG) had already been identified and the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) at Guwahati had been designated as the BTSG for the entire region, official sources said.

The mission had been given additional management responsibility of three more eastern states - West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa - to the CBTC.

It had also drawn up an ambitious programme for training lead farmers and field functionaries for fulfilling the objectives of the NBM.

Lead farmers would be trained at Gangtok, Aizawl, Imphal, Shillong, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. The Field Functionaries Training Programme was held at Guwahati in June this year in which 86 trainees participated against a target of 60.

Meanwhile, the BTSG compiled a training manual on Propagation of Bamboo, which was sent to all the state mission directors in the Eastern Zone.

Plans were also afoot to organise an International Level Seminar, besides deputing the state mission directors and NBM officials to visit some bamboo-intensive Asian countries on a study tour, official sources added.

UNI