AGARTALA, October 8 (TIWN): A blessing in disguise of a curse! This unpretentious notion holds true in case of one of the constituents of India’s Paradise Explored or North East India’s second most populous state Tripura. Geographical separation from mainland India, a late integration with union of India and primitive socio-ethic livelihood, all have, jointly contributed to accord the status of a Special Category state to the state Tripura. And the same is enabling one of the seven sisters of North Eastern Region (NER) to have special attention in the name of either excess fund allocation or obtaining diversified development projects from different bodies and authorities and one of them is Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MoDONER). This union ministry objectifies the special needs of the region to the other Ministries/Departments and policy makers.

As many as 24 places comprising West and North Tripura are under the purview of MoDONER’s one of the flagship projects North Eastern Rural Livelihood Promotion Policy (NERLP). Khatalia, Melaghar, Boxanagar, Bishalgarh, Jampuijala, Dukli, Hezamara, Mohanpur, Jirania, Mandwai, Mungiakami, Teliamura, Kalyanpur, Khowai, Tulashikhar, Padmabill, Kumarghat, Gaurnagar, Kadamtala, Panisagar, Dhamchhara, Pecharthal, Dasda, and Jampuihill are some of the rural areas where NERLP’s work of creating sustainable community institutions around women Self-Help Groups (SHGs), youth groups of men and women (YG) and Community Development Groups (CDG) will be carried on. Besides, building capacity of community institutions for self governance, bottom up planning, democratic functioning with transparency and accountability is also one of the dictums for the development of the vulnerable sections of the society. As social and economic empowerment are one of the thrust areas of the NERLP, developing partnership of community institutions for natural resource management, microfinance, market linkages, and sectoral economic services is also on its way to exploit the available natural other resources of the region concerned.

MoDONER’s status and future plans regarding Airports is also worth mentioning. Incidentally, Agartala Airport is the second busiest airport in the NER. Agartala (West Tripura) has been licensed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as Public Use Category on last December 31, 2011. The plans in the pipe line are, 1.construction of new control tower is in progress (Nearing completion) 2.Construction of aircraft maintenance hangars for AB-321 hangar – DPR being prepared. Furthermore, state Government. has been requested to provide 303 acres for expansion and airport development, which includes 31 acres for shifting of Glide Path – required for full landing   distance     available on runway and 26 acres for runway strip – for DGCA license. Besides, Non Lapsable Central Pool Resources (NLCPR), NLCPR (Central), Externally Aided Projects, Capacity Building and Technical Assistance and Advocacy and Publicity are some other work areas of the MoDONER among various other multipurpose and multidirectional socio-economic development projects. Additionally, the NER is also blessed with union Finance Minister’s (FM) and Prime Minister (PM) special package for NER states.     

An ambitious and noteworthy task, to be implemented by the mentioned union ministry under its ongoing schemes of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) in NER is Augmentation, Creation and Management of DHQ-SDHQ OFC (District Headquarter, Sub-Division Headquarter, Optical Fiber Cable) network in Meghalaya, Mizoram & Tripura States of North East (NE) Service Area at an estimated outlay of Rs.90 crore.