Agartala, Sep 19, 2024, TRIPURATIMES Desk

Agartala, Sept 19: Over 50,000 houses and 6,000 permanent assets were affected in rural Tripura due to the recent floods, an official said on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, Rural Development secretary Sandeep R. Rathod said, the total damage worth Rs. 2006 crore has been estimated as per the preliminary report.

He said, officials such as BDOs, GRS, and RPMs from the Rural Development (Panchayat) department demonstrated remarkable resilience and a positive attitude in handling the flood crisis.

The government has already submitted a damage assessment report, and an extensive Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) has been drafted to undertake emergency desilting and de-watering activities under the MGNREGA guidelines.

He also said, the state has proposed to the central government for an additional allocation of 50,000 homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin). The state government has also pledged Rs. 40 crore to support on-going rural development efforts.

During the press conference, Rathod highlighted the department’s various achievements. Under the ‘Samapurnata Abhiyan’, aspirational district Dhalai, along with aspirational blocks like Ganganagar, Dashda, and Damcherra achieved 100 percent saturation across six key indicators, including health, education, agriculture, and nutrition.

Launched in July by NITI Aayog to promote comprehensive development across 112 districts and 500 blocks nationwide, the initiative has already earned praise for its success in a span of just two and a half months.

In the rural employment sector, MGNREGA continues to play a vital role in providing employment and creating assets. For the 2024-25 fiscal year, a labour budget of 300 lakh person-days has been approved, with 155.25 lakh person-days of work already completed. Of the 1.84 lakh MGNREGA projects initiated this year, 99,000 have been completed, with the remaining 85,000 still in progress, focusing primarily on improving rural infrastructure.

The total labour budget allocated under MGNREGA in 2024-25 is Rs. 1282.59 crore, with Rs. 76624 already disbursed by the central government. Besides, the state government also released Rs. 43.38 crore from its share, the secretary said.

He said, under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin), 3,76,780 houses have been approved, with 95.4 of them—around 3,59,563 houses—already completed. For its stellar performance, Tripura has been recognized as the best-performing state among the north-eastern and hilly states.

Rathod also mentioned that to support SHGs in marketing their products, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMAC) and the Tripura Rural Livelihood Mission (TRLM) on August 28 last.

The Secretary also highlighted the contributions of the engineering wing of the Rural Development department.

Additional Secretary to Rural Development department Kuntal Das and under secretary Sudipta Biswas were also present.