The present state government relentlessly working to fulfill the basic needs of the state people, said Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Friday during inauguration of the first state level “Shehri Samridhi Utsav” Kshudiram Basu English medium school ground in Agartala.

Based on the aims and transparent policies of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state government moving forward with all developmental works for the people, said Chief Minister in his inaugural speech of the “Shehri Samridhi Utsav”, where  Self-Help-Groups (SHGs) of 20 towns are participating in the five day long festival with their products.

Promoting the slogan of Prime Minister ‘vocal for local’, Dr Saha said that the present government’s ultimate goal is to make the mothers self- dependent. In this regard, the government has been working on different plans, giving more priority to making women of rural and urban areas self-dependent through Self-Help Groups (SHGs). He said, earlier there were 39 thousand 82 women in SHGs of the state in the year 2017-18. After the present government took over, the number has increased to 3.45 lakh. This shows that change has been brought to the state in respect to rural economic development and making women self-dependent.

Earlier there were 4 thousand 153 SHGs in the state in the year 2017-18. Now the number of SHGs has risen to 38 thousand 657 SHGs. In the year 2017-18, the SHGs were provided with a revolving fund of 32 crore 67 lakh rupees. After the present government came to power, the SHGs have been provided with a revolving fund of 347 crore 61 lakh rupees. Apart from that, many simplifications were done on providing loans to the SHGs.

Dr Saha also highlighted the developmental activities of the government in road, rail, internet and other communication systems and added that now Tripura is 3rd top state of the country for strengthening the internet. He said that by utilizing digital technologies, the government now extended all facilities to the people in the last row.

Speaking in the programme, Urban Development Minister Manoj Kanti Deb said that the government is working for women empowerment and during the past four and half years, the number of SHGs in urban areas reached 2,646 by involving 26,400 women.

Earlier, speaking in the programme, the secretary of Urban Development department Abhishek Singh said altogether 90 stalls were distributed among SHGs to display their products.

The Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) Dipak Majumdar  also delivered his address in the inaugural programme and highlighted the initiatives taken by the AMC  for self-reliance of street vendors of the Agartala city.