In tribal outreach, Shivraj Chouhan govt plans mega event for tendu collectors
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government has planned a mega event in state capital Bhopal on Friday to start the dribution of bonus to 22.6 lakh tribal tendu leaf collectors of the state, a senior forest department official said. The event is seen as an attempt the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to reach out to the tribal population before the 2023 assembly elections. Union home miner Amit Shah is expected to attend the event. Earlier, the state government had renamed places in the name of tribal heroes, including Rani Kamlapati Railway station in Bhopal. Officials acknowledged that the bonus that tendu collectors are entitled to this year has declined but stressed the function was aimed at motivating people in the forest committees. A forest department official said the profit from the sale of tendu leaves in the current year has declined to ₹67 crore down from last year’s ₹192 crore, the lowest in five years. This means each of the 22 lakh tendu collectors will be entitled to receive ₹296 only. Principal chief conservator of forest (development) Chitranjan Tyagi said, “The bonus was reduced as it depends upon the market but this programme is being organised to motivate forest committees who really worked hard for the restoration of forest.”. Tyagi added that the event was being funded from the budget allocated for “awareness and training”.One official said that the grand function may cost in the vicinity of ₹6 crore. Officials said the state government has, however, decided to give 20% of the revenue, from the sale of timber and bamboo to the forest committees rather than 20% of the profits. Tyagi said the government is also expected to announce the decision to treat more than 800 forest villages as revenue villages and felicitate the forest samitis that have contributed to restoring degraded forest across 4.31 lakh hectare. Environmental Ajay Dubey said the decline in the bonus for tendu leaves was a matter of concern. “The state government is already paying only ₹2,500 per bag to the collector and now the bonus reduced to less than ₹300 which was once ₹1,500 to ₹2,000. In neighbouring Chhattisgarh, collectors are getting ₹4,000 per bag,” he said, suggesting that the government should have increased the bonus amount rather than spend so much money on the event. According to forest officials, more than 1 lakh people from across the state are expected to participate in the event.
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