Union Rural Development Minister, Giriraj Singh highlighted importance of women empowerment and self-reliance of women for sustainable rural development.
In this connection, he hailed the Tripura Government for focusing on womenfolk and rural economy. He also said, ripura is fast emerging as a model state in the country in terms of development.
On the second day of his three-day State visit, the Minister interacted with the Women members of SHGs in Agartala as well as at Chhesrimai and other areas in Sepahijala relating to the prospect of growth through SHGs and problems.
He also inspected several resource generation projects done under MNREGA in Sepahijala District.
“Women have a crucial role in developing rural economy. Womenfolk can expedite rural development. Unless rural economy is not thriving, development of the State is not possible,” Singh commented at Sepahijala. He hailed the efforts of the State Government officials in implementing projects for overall development of rural economy.
Later, Singh interacted with the Women SHG members in Agartala and inspected stalls opened by some SHGs.
The Union Minister said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to develop the north eastern state and the region would be the gateway of development in the future.
“It is heartening to see that the number of Self Help Groups(SHGs) in Tripura has increased 6 times in just 3.5 years. About 3 lakh women are now associated with the new revolution of self-reliant India”, the Union Minister tweeted.
In a separate tweet, he said, there are many success stories in Tripura which need to be replicated on a large scale and many new things also need to be adopted.
The Union Minister distributed demo cheque of worth Rs. 35 crore among the 1,014 self groups as loans sanctioned by the state government. He said the self help groups of the state have attained good skills.
Singh also visited Heart of Humanity stall – a stall from where needy people can collect food, clothes etc free of cost – at Radhanagar in Agartala. He hailed the unique initiative under the banner of ‘Heart of Humanity’.
In his speech, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb emphasized involvement of more women in financial activities.
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, Paschim Tripura Zilla Sabhadhipati Antara Sarkar Deb, Rural Development secretary Saumya Gupta, CEO of Tripura Rural Livelihood Mission (TRLM)- C.K. Debnath and others were present in the programme.
Later in the evening, the Union Minister held meeting with Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and high officials and reviewed various on-going schemes.