Tripura: At Forefront of Rural Development

Tripura, the third-smallest state in the country, covers 10,491 sq km (4,051 sq mi) of area and is bordered by Bangladesh to the north, south & west and Assam and Mizoram to the east. In 2011, the state had 3,671,032 residents, constituting just 0.3 per cent of the country’s population. As of 2012, the state had eight districts, 23 subdivisions and 45 development blocks. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices increased from Rs 8,903.53 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 26,809.60 crore in 2013-14.

Tripura won five SKOCH Order-of-Merit and one Award. Of these, four Order-of-Merit were bagged in Agriculture & Rural Development along with two Awards while one Order-of-Merit was received in the e-Governance category. The state is also at top in the Agriculture & Rural Development category.

Key Achievements

Commencing the line-up, we begin with the Agriculture & Rural Development segment. In this, the District Administration Gomati, Tripura bagged four Order-of-Merit and two Awards. The projects were, ‘Unnatisheel Gomati’, (won an award); ‘Rural Housing Leading to Gender Empowerment in Gomati District’ (won an award); ‘Effective Implementation of MGNREGA Through Convergence–Resulting in Sustainable Livelihoods’; and, ‘Gomati District on the Way to Open Defecation Free (ODF) Status’ projects. For the ‘Unnatisheel Gomati’ project, the main objective of this administrative tool is to improve service delivery to people. ‘The Rural Housing’ project deals with a scheme that has been implemented with focus on creating gender empowerment and also on the empowerment of disadvantaged groups.

The e-Governance Order-of-Merit, won by Tripura State Computerisation Agency (A society of Directorate of Information Technology, Government of Tripura) for Agartala City Area Network (ACAN) aims to connect designated GoT offices in the Agartala city with an OFC (Optical Fiber Cable) backbone. Till September 2015, 23 offices have been covered under this project. Moreover 187 IP Phones have been operational across the State using ACAN Voice Call Manager for IP Phone communication facility. ACAN is providing connectivity to various GoT offices for data, voice & video communication.

The economy of Tripura had suffered from disturbed conditions of extremism and insurgency over the last two decades, which directly hindered the human safety as well as economic development process in the recent past. Development of infrastructure and creation of conditions conducive for economic development are essential for tapping the investment opportunities in the State.