The Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (I/C), Prime Minister?s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh at the inauguration of the Seminar on Bamboo Development for North Eastern Region, in New Delhi on September 27, 2016.
Calls For A “Green Gold” Revolution
New Delhi (PIB-GR-TYP-BIN): The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated a Seminar on Bamboo Development for North Eastern region on Sep 27. The two-day seminar is being organized by Ministry of DoNER to discuss the gaps pertaining to development of bamboo in the North Eastern region.
Delivering the inaugural address, Dr. Jitendra Singh called for a “green gold” revolution through promotion and trade of bamboo which, he said, had a vast unexplored potential to bring about a quantum jump in the economic growth of Northeast in particular and whole of India in general. The expression “green gold” has been coined to refer to bamboo because it is a miracle plant which is often placed in the category of grass product rather than forest product and matures faster than its other peers, he added. He said that there is approximately 8.96 million hectare of forest area of this country which is covered by bamboo and Northeast is the home for over 60 percent of India’s bamboo reserves.
In the exclusive ‘Brahmaputra Study Center’ proposed by him for the University of Guwahati, Dr. Jitendra Singh announced that a provision will also be made to set up a “Bamboo Cell” devoted to research and innovation by way of new techniques like cloning, hybrid, etc. to have better and faster quality of bamboo products.
Secretary, DoNER, Mr. Naveen Verma said that there is a huge potential for bamboo to double the income of farmers in the North East. He said that North East region comes under Zone-5 category of the seismic map and bamboo can be used to construct buildings. He also said that there is a need to focus on start-ups for bamboo products. He said that he expects clear cut action points from this two-day seminar.
Member, Niti Aayog, Prof. Ramesh Chand, Adviser, Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency, Mr. Naiba Konyak, Member, NEC, Mr. C.K. Das and other senior officers of the Ministry and state Govts. were also present.
(Source: PIB/GR/TYP/BIN/USPA/WN/IAIJ)
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