By Firstdespatch Desk Jan 31, 2025
Agartala, Jan 31 (FD) Tripura government has asked for one lakh seventy eight thousand crore from the 16th Finance Commission as allocation to make the state a ‘developed one’, Chief Minister , Dr. Manik Saha said on Friday.
The commission headed by Arvind Panagariya had a detailed discussion at the civil secretariat here on Thursday.
“We need money for developments of the state. In the month of September we suffered a devastating flood and incurred a loss of Rs.15, 000 crores”, he said.
Dr. Saha said, why the state had failed to provide DA to its employees on par with the central government employees due to deprivation by the by the 14th Finance Commission.
“We informed the state that the government is on the way of infrastructure development. The Finance Commission also appreciated us for the state’s fiscal discipline. The state would have gone bankrupt had we not maintained this discipline”, CM said.
Mentioning the dense forest coverage in 73 percent of lands in the state territory he said the state also needed lands for setting up industries.
“Our state is one of the good carbon sink as we have dense forests. The other states having dense forests have got special 10 percent to 20 percent award. The 15th Finance Commission had introduced 10 % special award for the states having good forest coverage”, he said.
He evaded a question if the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), if they would be given direct funding by the central government.
However, the Tipra Motha and the two other political parties like opposition CPI-M and Congress also met the Finance Commission and demanded for direct funding for the tribal body.
The commission is in a three-day visit to the state and during their stay would also speak to the other stake holders and the representatives of the different political parties. FD JK