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Friday, November 25, 2011

CM’s Sikkim Bhraman sanctions delivered to Ranka and Luing

RANKA, 24 Nov: The sanctioned orders for construction of Tubular Structure Green House and Water Harvesting Tanks by the Chief Minister during his village-to-village tour of Upper Burtuk constituency [Ranka and Luing] were delivered to the people by the Horticulture & Cash Crop Development Department today at the Ranka Block Administrative Centre.

Addressing the gathering of Panchayats, farmers and locals, Minister for Horticulture & Cash Crop Development Department, DN Thakarpa informed that today’s programme was being held to distribute the on-the-spot sanctions made by the Chief Minister to the people of Ranka and Luing on 30 July, during his 42 days village to village tour.
There are 1,200 beneficiaries in South and West District alone to be handed over their share, but because of the ill health of the CM, we have not been able to hold any programmes in the districts, he said and added that this will commence once the CM recuperates
Sixty five thousand people are engaged in farming in the state, 84 per cent of the total land is forest land leaving only 16 per cent land for farming of which another 5 per cent is used for building roads, etc. This tells the story that the land mass remains the same but the population of the state has gone up, meaning more mouths to feed but not enough cultivation, he further said.
“The CM took the decision to make Sikkim an organic state in 2003 and we have been working on it ever since. We have already got 6,000 hectares of organic land with certification in the state and will be adding another 44,000 hectares making the total of 50,000 hectares of organic land with certification by the end of 2012”, he informed. The decision to go organic was taken as it was found that fertilizers were not good for the health of the people, he added.
The department considering the organic mission has also launched soil testing vans which will be carrying out soil testing across the state and will even provide soil health report considering the fertility of the soil in the state and to increase productivity.
There is a lot of demand for organic products not only in the country but all over the world and so the department is tying up with lots of companies for marketing the products that will be produced by our farmers, he further said.
The department has also started introducing modern technology in the agriculture and horticulture sector with the aim of encouraging and attracting the educated youth who have totally drifted from the age old practice of farming.
He also informed the gathering about ‘Kissan Bazaars’ to come up in each and every constituency for which the department was looking for suitable locations. The department is also looking at picking up the left over products of the farmers after selling them commercially and keeping them in cold storages [to come up at Rangpo for North and East & at Melli for South and West] and then sold off on need basis within the country and if needed outside too, the Minister informed.
Earlier the gathering was also addressed by Vishal Chauhan [Secretary, H&CCD Department], Ramudamu [Advisor, Agriculture Welfare Board] and DT Lepcha [Advisor, RMDD and also the ‘caretaker’ of Upper Burtuk Constituency], and attended by BB Lopchen [Advisor, STCS], Bimal Dawari [Zilla Adhyaksha, East], DN Sapkota [Conveyner, Kissan Cell], DK Rai [Principal Director, H&CCDD], Urvashi Poudyal [BDO Ranka], officials of the H&CCD department, Panchayats, Zilla members, farmers and locals.
The tubular structure green house has been provided to 162 beneficiaries at a cost of about Rs. 2,12,62,500 whereas the water harvesting tanks provided are of various capacities like of 20,000 liters which was facilitated to 31 beneficiaries which costs around Rs. 12,40,000 likewise 10,000 liters capacity tanks to 110 beneficiaries at a cost of Rs. 22 lakhs and eight poly tanks with a capacity measuring 2000 liters at a cost of 1,12,000 respectively. 
During the programme the sanction order/work order for the construction of water harvesting tanks were handed out to the beneficiaries inclusive of 50% subsidy in the construction like for 20,000 liters tank construction Rs. 40,000 and for 10,000 liters capacity Rs. 20,000 subsidy were also announced by the department.

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