Telangana rural development is praiseworthy: NIRD Chief

Hyderabad: National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRDPR) Director General G Narendra Kumar appreciated Telangana Government’s initiatives for rural development, especially infrastructure. “Telangana has developed its infrastructure very well. If one travels in rural areas in Telangana and then into rural areas of other States, one can notice the contrast. There is much […]

Hyderabad: National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRDPR) Director General G Narendra Kumar appreciated Telangana Government’s initiatives for rural development, especially infrastructure.

“Telangana has developed its infrastructure very well. If one travels in rural areas in Telangana and then into rural areas of other States, one can notice the contrast. There is much better development in Telangana,” Narendra Kumar said.

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This was mainly due to the lot of resources and efforts put in by Telangana government and they have brought up the facilities in rural areas in a reasonably good manner, better than few other States in the country, he said while speaking to Telangana Today on the sidelines of National Conference on “Dissemination of innovations in bamboo sector for improving the rural economy” on Thursday.

On the Telangana government initiatives that impress a lot, the NIRDPR Director General said Palle Pragathi, Haritha Haram, setting up vermicompost units in gram panchayats were good initiatives, which other States can emulate.

“Telangana government has been on progressive path in rural infrastructure development but some of the infrastructure facilities as informed to us were not being used to fullest potential. These facilities can be used for training and social mobilization and for economic development activities,” he suggested.

Regarding the bamboo cultivation prospects in Telangana, he said Telangana was looking to diversify its cropping profile and bamboo can be promoted in some parts of the State in a concentrated manner.

This can be done by developing processing, production and other facilities, enabling a cluster of entities, which are involved in manufacturing bamboo based products and compete with conventional wooden products, he said.

On the national policy for bamboo cultivation, the NIRDPR Director General said there was a lot of potential for bamboo based development in country. India has second largest area under bamboo cultivation in the world but our contribution was just five per cent against China’s 70 per cent.

Traditionally women and youth from North Eastern States have been associated in developing bamboo products. There was scope for equitable and inclusive development by involving all the downtrodden sections of society, he said.

Development of bamboo products on a scale to replace conventional wooden products, which are imported a lot, is another challenge. Emerging applications such as utilization of bamboo for fuel by converting it into pellets for energizing power stations and converting it into alcohol for use in import substitution fuel for petrol and diesel are a few to name, he pointed out.

“We need to have coordinated efforts for value chain development for bamboo and its products. To achieve all this, there is a need for a good national policy,” said Narendra Kumar.

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