AGARTALA : Tripura Chief Minister Prof. Dr. Manik Saha on Saturday attended the Niti Aayog meeting at New Delhi and said that the deliberations and the decisions of this Governing Council meeting would go a long way to strengthen cooperative federalism of the country.

During the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi, Dr Saha has informed the Governing Council regarding various matter and steps taken by the state government for the development of the state.

Dr. Saha said that the state has launched LAKSHYA 2047, a Vision Document to transform the State of Tripura into a fully developed State.

“For this purpose, we have taken several transformative steps including enhancing connectivity by making Tripura the gateway to the NE region through Prime Minister’s HIRA Plus Model, enhancement of Capital Expenditure, to bring about Ease of Doing Business as well as the Ease of Living, e-office introduction upto Gram panchayat level, introduction of BMS (Beneficiary Management System) to facilitate DBT for state-run welfare schemes”, said Dr Saha.

He further said that the government of Tripura has established the Good Governance Department and SIT (State Institution for Transformation) created as per mandate of NITI Aayog.

Speaking about Industry and Investment Sector, Dr Saha said, “We are focusing on reducing the dependency of the Workforce on Agriculture by 50%, increasing the Trade and Commerce through Bangladesh and other States of India up to Rs1 Lakh crores. Enhancing Tourism contribution to GSDP up to 15% by 2047”.

He said that in the Infrastructure, Communication, and Logistics Sector, the government’s vision is achieve 80% agricultural land area under Irrigation, provide 4 lane road connectivity to all important destinations.

“In the Environment, Forest and Climate change sector, we would like to achieve increase the value of Forest produce by five times, improving the composition of Very Dense Forest to 40%,  resulting in increase of GSDP up to 25% , 2.5 times increase in Water bodies in Forest areas and Enhancing Agar-wood economy to Rs. 10,000 Crore”, said Dr Saha.

Dr. Saha said that the in Governance Sector the state government emphasising to make Tripura a Digital Society. He further informed that the state government has taken several steps towards women empowerment, such as 33% reservations for women in State Government Jobs, collateral-free loans for women start-ups and reduction in Stamp duty in registration of property, No tuition-fee for girl students in Government Degree Colleges,  4.71 lakh rural women mobilised into Self Help Groups and there are presently 83,424 ‘Lakhpati Didis’ in the rural areas of the State. 

He said that in the urban local bodies, ‘Pink toilets’ have been introduced for the women and the girl children. Speaking about Health Sector, Chief Minister said that the number of MBBS seats are doubled, ‘Agartala Government Dental College’ & Agartala Government Nursing College have been set up.

On the Education Sector he said that for the unsuccessful candidates of the State Board ‘BachharBachao’ scheme introduced, CM-Sath scheme, ‘Super-30’ scheme ‘NIPUN’, ‘Tinkering Labs’, ‘ICT in Schools’ and Vocational Education introduced in schools. 

 “I am sure that under the able leadership and guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will be able to realise the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ and ‘Ek Tripura Shrestha Tripura.’ I am confident that the deliberations and the decisions of this Governing Council meeting would go a long way to strengthen cooperative federalism in our country”, he added.