Development initiatives make 2007 eventful in Tripura

Agartala, Dec 25 (UNI) Tripura witnessed a remarkable achievement in containing a two-decade-old militancy and several resource mobilisation initiatives in 2007, while political activism and corruption in the state administration made the year gone by eventful.

Tripura signed as many as six bilateral trade treaties with Japan, Germany, China and Thailand-based enterprises for utilising forest and agricultural resources for sustainable economic development of the state.

As part of the mission, Tripura hosted two international seminars on development of infrastructure and agricultural productivity with world renowned experts.

After one and a half decades of attaining statehood, Tripura published a comprehensive Human Development Report (HDR) at the end of the year, which revealed among north-eastern states, Tripura ranked second after Mizoram in the literacy rate; at the same time, there was a substantial improvement in school attendance rates.

In terms of health and longevity, Tripura stands taller than the national average, which is 61 for males and 62.5 for females. The per capita income was below the national average and Human Development Index (HDI) level was medium.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) invested Rs 311 crore in Tripura for Afforestation&Eco Restoration project for economic benefit of tribal people in rolling plan under its overseas development programme, aiming to rehabilitate the heavily degraded forest land, which is ravaged due to shifting cultivation and various human activities.

Meanwhile, Germany also gave assent to provide a whopping 830 million rupee - financial assistance to Tripura, aimed at empowering the tribal and people living in rural areas by utilising the abundant natural resources under the Indo-German Bilateral Cooperation agreement and about 50,000 families, mostly tribal and rural poor, would benefit under this six-year project.

Thailand-based C P Group of Industries initiated a separate project to invest in the food processing sector in Tripura, while Thai government identified energy, natural gas, tourism and food and agro-based industries as a potential sector for investment. China based Nanjing University signed an MoU with Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation (TFDPC), one of the profit making undertakings in India to transfer bamboo technology.

In the industry sector, Tripura set up Northeast's first and the country's second rubber park and a rubberwood-based furniture factory in the Public Private Partnership model. In a bid to boost the rubber production and enhance the prospect of revolution in the elastic polymer industry, Tripura Industrial Development Corporation (TIDC) launched the project for setting up India's second rubber-based industrial park in the state in collaboration with the Rubber Board of India. Apart from that, Tripura Horticulture Corporation signed a treaty with Dabur India Limited, Dharampal Satpal group of industries and Northeastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Company (NERAMAC) to sell pineapple approximately 71,000 tonnes per year.

In the education sector, Tripura got an excellent boost, as a central university along with Agricultural College, Regional Engineering College, Nursing College, Engineering College and an exclusive general degree college for tribal students in Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), constituted under the sixth schedule of the Constitution, came up. The state also gave satellite education facilities through the EDUSAT Network to assist students and about 50 remote schools of the state were connected with a modern technique of education.

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