Kamalanagar, 24 December, 2020:Β Β Β Dg. Rasik Mohan Chakma, Chief Executive Member, Chakma Autonomous District Council today flagged off the WRC Land Expansion project funded by NEC under Community Development Programme in a programme organised by Agriculture Department, CADC. The programme was held at Udalthana, a village 5 km from Kamalanagar which has abundant low land interspersed by hills suitable forΒ conversion to WRC land.
The project will develop a total area of 115.7 Hectares at a total project cost of Rs.295.68 lakhs. 17 areas will be covered under the project. On an average each beneficiary will get 36 hours of work time. However, the estimated work time shall vary depending upon the nature of the landscape. For land with steep gradient where it would be uneconomical the estimated work time will be curtailed.
The programme was attended by Dg. H. Amaresh Chakma, Chairman, CADC, Dg. Buban Kumar Chakma, EM i/c Agriculture besides other MDCs, village council leaders and beneficiary farmers.
The project was flagged off with the battle cry – ‘Nobody shall live under shortage of food”.
The CEM speaking assured of more projects to bring more land under WRC citing Rs.750 crore set aside by Mizoram Government under SEDP and two other projects one amounting to Rs.19 crore and another Rs.30 crore submitted by CADC to the concerned Central Ministry. He also made mention of a fishery project amounting to Rs.2.20 Crore that is about to be sanctioned by January 2021 which shall seek to make CADC self-sufficient in fish production.
He said, “It shall be our endeavour that no land is left fallow and everyone have opportunity for livelihood irrespective of one’s political affiliation.”
He said that in addition to expansion of WRC land the project would encourage more people to switch from shifting/jhum cultivation to permanent/settled cultivation while stating that till today a large section of the people continue to practice jhum cultivation. He has urged for more people to adopt settled way of cultivation while adding that civilisation has been possible when mankind gave up nomadic life.
“More than making fund available for developmental activity, ensuring its proper utilization and making the benefit reach the target group is important”, he remarked.
He further added, “CADC have received enough fund under various central government programme during the last one decade but commensurate development has not happened because there is a problem with our attitude which must change for the better”.
Dg. Buban Kumar Chakma, EM i/c Agriculture giving credit to the able leadership of Dg. Rasik Mohan Chakma for the project said, “It shall be ensured the project is implemented properly and monitoring will be conducted from time to time for the purpose”.
He further added, “I shall personally make time for monitoring the work.”