Agartala: Congratulating the development initiatives of Tripura’s BJP-IPFT regime over the last four years, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday iterated that the central government has been working to make the state the “gateway of the northeast and hub of trade corridor”.
Taking part in the golden jubilee celebration of Tripura’s statehood, Shah said under the Biplab Kumar Deb government, it has become one of the best performing states in the country. Tripura’s per capita income has increased to Rs 1.30 lakh from Rs 1.25 lakh despite the Covid pandemic and both farmers’ income and farm production have doubled in such a short period of time.
Appreciating the anti-narcotic drive of the Tripura Chief Minister, Shah said the young generation had landed in the clutches of drugs but the state government has initiated a social revolution against drug abuse that not only helped Tripura, but the country as well.
“The last king of Tripura Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya had a great vision of development and he was one of the front runners in the growth index of pre-independence period. He established Agartala airport, several schools and funded Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose for persuasion of his research.
“Regent queen Kanchan Prava Devi signed the instrument of accession with India two years after the death of Bir Bikram. To recognise the contribution of the Maharaja, we renamed the airport after Bir Bikram, going beyond our practice,” Shah underlined.
In a virtual message during the programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the people of the state and said, “The double engine government (reference to the BJP leading the ruling dispensations in both the centre and the state) of Tripura has made a remarkable change in infrastructure development.
“The air and railway connectivity of Tripura with the rest of the country has increased manifold that gave a boost to the economy. The work for highway expansion, railway connectivity with Bangladesh and access to Chittagong sea port is progressing fast.”
Shah also unveiled the vision document for the next 25 years – Lakshya 2047 – and released a commemorative postage stamp on Tripura. The Tripura Agar (the tree which provides the main ingredient for perfume) Policy, aiming to double the Agar plantation in the state by 2025, was also released virtually by the Home Minister.
Addressing the main function here, Chief Minister Deb highlighted Tripura’s successes in the last four years and said the BJP government was able to invest Rs 11000 Cr for highway development, which was only Rs 1200 Cr during the left front regime. 1.25 lakh jobs including 10,000 government employment has been created.
“Now the mindset of the youths has changed. job seekers have turned job creators, which is the biggest success of the government. It will pay a huge dividend in future. For the first time, Tripura is going to recruit 500 female constables in police and have female cadres in Tripura state rifles,” Deb claimed.
He stated that the number of Women Self Help Groups has been increased to 26000 from 4000 in three years.
On the education front, the Tripura government brought 100 schools under the CBSE’s ambit as part of the Vidyajyoti scheme to ensure poor meritorious students get a national standard of education.
The crime on women has reduced substantially while the conviction rate improved three fold in three years, the Chief Minister added.
