Nagaland focuses on agriculture to revive economy

Kohima, The Nagaland government, which is facing a financial crunch in the wake of the lockdown, is focusing on strengthening the agriculture and allied sectors to revive the state’s economy, a minister said.

The government will hold a meeting with the representatives of the farming community and entrepreneurs on Friday to discuss various issues to improve these sectors, state planning and coordination minister Neiba Kronu said.

He said the government led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio is looking to become self-reliant in terms of agricultural production and reduce its dependence on the Centre and other states.

“The present situation arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak has given us a lesson that we should take farming more seriously to become self-reliant in the food sector as the state has been facing a financial crunch,” Kronu said.

He said the state has conducive climatic conditions and fertile land to help the agricultural sector grow.

Accepting that the performance of the agriculture and allied sectors was below par in the past, he said, “Now, we have to change the strategy and all have to be active.”

He also said that the government is working on a strategy to boost the veterinary and animal husbandry sector in the state.

The inter-district movement of stranded people was allowed from Thursday and the exercise will continue till Saturday, home department’s principal secretary Abhijit Sinha said.

A total of 2,434 stranded people were sent to their respective districts during the day through 106 buses of the government.

Buses travelling through Assam to the far-flung districts of Nagaland were given police escort, he said, adding that social distancing protocol and other sanitisation process were followed while ferrying the stranded people in the buses.

Official sources said that more than 6,000 applications from the stranded people were received by the facilitation centres, under the supervision of the Empowered Group, in Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung districts.

Additional deputy commissioner Kohima, Lithrongla Tongpi Rutsa said that the facilitation cell in the state capital received around 3,000 applications from persons who are from outside Nagaland and want to go to their respective states.

Such applications have been forwarded to the government for necessary action, she said.

Speaking on the Nagaland people stranded outside the state due to the lockdown, Kronu said the government does not encourage them to come back.

At present, the government has a list of around 23,000 people including patients, students and workers, stuck in different parts of the country.

The minister said the government is taking initiatives to make the BSL-3 lab functional for testing samples of people with coronavirus-like symptoms, though no COVID-19 case has been reported in the state.