– Abhijit Nath, Agartala, Tripura
In a whirlwind series of meetings Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb met with five union ministers – Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonwal and Giriraj Singh in a single day seeking financial support for the completion of ongoing projects.
During his meeting with the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he urged the union minister to release pending GST compensation for the state government and said that an amount of Rs 153.90 crore is yet to be released as GST Compensation for the period April 2020 to March 2021 for Tripura.
He also placed a proposal in front of the finance minister for the inclusion of rubber, and its product under the purview of RCM under Section 9 (3) of the GST law. In addition, Deb requested the union minister to release the fund of Rs 875 crore as suggested by the 15th Finance Commission (FC) for five projects.
Tripura Chief Minister in meeting with the union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged him to look into the matter of regularization of SSA Teachers following the judgment and order passed by the High Court of Tripura. He also sought additional funds for the regularization of 5,132 contractual teachers.
Raising the issue for a regional institute of education (RIE), he said that 50 acres of land have been identified by the government of Tripura at Mohanpur under West Tripura district for construction and setting up of an RIE in Tripura and proposal for this regional institute has already been sent to NCERT. The Director, NCERT also visited the site on 9th and 10th August 2018.
Tripura Chief Minister held a meeting with the newly appointed union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and placed a host of proposals including the establishment of AIIMS in Tripura. He also raised the demand for the establishment of a 100-bed Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) at the AGMC and GBP Hospital complex, Agartala in Tripura; a project for the State Cancer Institute at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Regional Cancer Centre, Agartala, under Tertiary Care Cancer Centre (TCCC) Scheme; sought support for the National Ambulance Service and additional allocation of Covid vaccines for the state along with funds for the emergency response plan.
During the meeting with Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Deb urged the minister to instruct the officials for preparing the DPR for establishing a permanent jetty to be constructed at Srimantapur. He also requested the minister to take necessary steps for the dredging of the Gomati river and trial run on the protocol route from Allahabad-Haldia-Sonamura.
Tripura Chief Minister also met with the Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh and discussed different aspects including the PMAY scheme. He informed the minister that the state has sanctioned 1.59 lakh PMAY houses to saturate the permanent waiting list prepared as per Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC). Around 2.80 lakh families were eligible as per SECC data under the new definition of Kutcha house. He further discussed the release of maintenance grants for PMGSY roads as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission.
