Nagaland govt focuses on agriculture to revive economy
The government will hold a meeting with therepresentatives of the farming community and entrepreneurs onFriday to discuss various issues to improve these sectors,state planning and coordination minister Neiba Kronu said.
He said the government led by Chief Minister NeiphiuRio is looking to become self-reliant in terms of agriculturalproduction and reduce its dependence on the Centre and otherstates.
"The present situation arising out of the COVID-19outbreak has given us a lesson that we should take farmingmore seriously to become self-reliant in the food sector asthe state has been facing a financial crunch," Kronu said onWednesday.
He said the state has conducive climatic conditionsand fertile land to help the agricultural sector grow.
Accepting that the performance of the agriculture andallied sectors was below par in the past, he said, "Now, wehave to change the strategy and all have to be active."
He also said that the government is working on astrategy to boost the veterinary and animal husbandry sectorin the state.
Speaking on the Nagaland people stranded in differentparts of the country due to the lockdown, he said the stategovernment does not encourage them to come back.
At present, the government has a list of around 23,000people including patients, students and workers, stuck indifferent parts of the country.
The minister said the government is taking initiativesto make the BSL-3 lab functional for testing samples of peoplewith coronavirus-like symptoms, though no COVID-19 case hasbeen reported in the state.
Home department's principal secretary Abhijit Sinhasaid the inter-district movement of stranded people would beallowed from Thursday till Saturday. NBSBDC BDC