Chhattisgarh to launch “Indira Van Mitan Yojana”

•  The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel announced about the launch of “Indira Van Mitan Yojana” on the eve of International Day of World Indigenous People. It is an initiative to support forest dwellers of Chhattisgarh and achieve self- reliance.

Highlights

• The scheme aims to benefit 19 lakh families from scheduled areas of Chhattisgarh by providing them with self-employment opportunities.

Key Features of the scheme

• Under the scheme, a group of 10 to 15 youngsters are to be formed in 10,000 villages of Chhattisgarh. The villages are to be selected from tribal areas the state. The groups will manage forest based economic activities. They will establish new avenues that will help to create self-employment for the forest dwellers. Also, the team will manage procurement, marketing and processing of forest produce.
• The scheme is to encourage plantation of fruit bearing trees and medicinal plants.
• The State Government of Chhattisgarh will create forest produce processing units in around 85 development blocks in scheduled areas of the state. It is estimated that cost to develop single forest produce processing unit will be around Rs 10 lakhs. An amount of Rs 8.5 crores is to be made available to set up the processing units in the selected 85 development blocks

Other Initiatives

• The Chhattisgarh Government has been launching several other projects in order to improve lives of the tribal community in the state. One such recent initiative is the Bodhghat Irrigation Project. The project was launched on River Indravati river to increase irrigation in the tribal areas of Bastar. The rehabilitation package for the submergence of land is to be decided by the local tribals.
• In May 2020, the State Government of Chhattisgarh launched Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana. The scheme aims to encourage crop production in the state and give farmers the right price for their produce.
• The Adarsh Police Stations scheme launched by the State Government will convert police stations into Ideal Police Stations.