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WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT US I would like to congratulate the whispers for bringing interviews from
oragnizations working for the poor at the grass root level and undertaking
silent revolutions. Dr VK Bahuguna's efforts are a lessons for other
PSUs in India. Hope other Forest Corporations also get the same amount
of freedom to work. What is praiseworthy is the support Tripura's leadership
gives to such officers. I think North East is coming of age. K P Singh ADVERTISE ON-WHISPERSINTHECORRIDORS.COM For Dr.V.K.Bahuguna,Managing Director of the "Tripura Forest Development & Plantation Corporation (TFDPC)Ltd.Forest development coupled with Ecological improvement with a humanitarian approach is a passion.Dr.Bahuguna who is an Indian Forest Service(IFS) officer of the 1979 batch belongs to the Tripura care. In an interview to <whispersinthecorridors.com>Dr.Bahuguna said "we are diversifying into value addition of the Rubber Wood by establishing Tripura Rubber Wood Factory at the TFDPC Industrial Estate, Agartala, for production of export quality eco-friendly solid Rubber wood board." A superior world class knocked down furniture made from treated Rubber wood has also been set up for 300 carpenters. For this, a subsidiary unit named as "Unakoti Crafts and Furniture" has been set up with latest state of art machineries imported from Germany, Taiwan and China. Dr.Bahuguna who has a vast experience & is also Winner of the prestigious Queen's Award for the outstanding forester of the Commonwealth for the year 2000 awarded by the Commonwealth Forestry Association for the outstanding contribution made in the field of forestry in India during two decades of career for the all round performance as a practicing resource manager, administrator, teacher, researcher and policy formulator. The work done to promote forestry specially participatory forest management was recognised.Here goes his interview: 1/ Can you tell us about your diversification/expansion, plans? A- We are the single largest Rubber Plantation unit in the country and through our efforts Tripura is now second after Kerala in Rubber area wise. We are expanding the base of our Rubber resources by planting 3874 ha of forest land along the international border with Bangladesh. In the last three years we have raised 1750 ha of plantation. We are diversifying into value addition of the Rubber Wood by establishing Tripura Rubber Wood Factory at the TFDPC Industrial Estate, Agartala, for production of export quality eco-friendly solid Rubber wood board. An agreement has been signed with the Godfrey Ltd of Singapore to export the 50% boards to Europe and USA. A superior world class knocked down furniture made from treated Rubber wood has also been set up for 300 carpenters. For this, a subsidiary unit named as "Unakoti Crafts and Furniture" has been set up with latest state of art machineries imported from Germany, Taiwan and China. We are further venturing into establishing a Door manufacturing factory for value addition of the Teak and other valuable timber of the State. The corporation has signed an agreement with the State Forest Department to take all its seize timber for value addition for which a separate division is being created. The Corporation is to set up a Cycle tyre and Tube factory at Agartala to meet the demands of these items in the North-East on competitive prices. We are setting up the first Technically Specified Rubber (TSR) Factory outside South India at Takmachera South Tripura and would like to replace the processing of latex to TSR to conserve the forests as TSR does not require firewood and smoking. All this diversification would provide jobs to more than 3500 technical and non-technical educated youth of State. Recently, an International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) funded project has been launched to provide models of livelihood for the tribal shifting cultivators honey-combing the forests. A bilateral collaboration is in the offing with the Nanjing Forestry University of China's Bamboo Engineering Institute for transfer of Chinese Bamboo Industrial Technology for the transfer of superior bamboo technology to Tripura. 2/Have you involved women work force in your venture? A- We have set up a Bamboo Furniture making unit with a all women Self Help Group and it is proposed go for a bilateral cooperation with Oita Prefecture of Japan under the JBIC project for value addition of the rich Bamboo Resources of Tripura. It may be stressed here that the Bamboo handicrafts of Tripura are already famous in the world but we need to improvise in finishing and longevity of the products for which the Oita Prefecture team that visited Agartala recently. 3/What innovative steps are being taken to see to it that the Corporation is able to play a major role in Tripura's Economic growth? A- The Corporation is playing a key role in the economic activities of the State. We have implemented several innovative schemes to make the company a very viable unit. Due to infusion of Corporate culture during the past three years the net profit has jumped from 2.5 crore to 14.5 crore in 200-6-07. A fair amount of increase (around 4 crore) is attributed to the rising Rubber Prices, the balance has been achieved through involvement of our workers and an innovative incentive policy implemented under the partnership programme with the workers and staff unions. The daily earning of the workers have increased from a paltry Rs 65 to more than 150 and even up to Rs 300 during peak season. Further, from our activities we are generating around 16 lakh mandays work for the rural poor in our activities. There has been a dramatic improvement in the quality of Rubber sheets produced by us and we have a sellers market now as people from Punjab and Delhi are buying the high quality product from us. In another step, the industrial estate Nagichers has also been turned into a profitable venture from a constant loss making unit. With a net annul loss of 52 lakhs in 2004 the unit is now making profit of 1 crore which is likely to go up and up with more investment and the innovative "Swablamban Scheme" under which 100 carpenters were involved in the production of world class Rubber wood Furniture. The unit is now going to be a subsidiary of the Corporation soon. There will be 300 carpenters getting jobs through self help groups for which we have signed a MOU with two private concerns. These people are earning up to Rs 4500 per month from Rs 1500. A Rajasthan based export oriented firm is coming soon for a joint venture for export of knock down furniture. The Corporation has won Silver Award from among the 500 entries for the Indian Express-EMPI 2006 award for innovative management practices. We have also won the best managed company "Udyog Ratna" award from Institute of Economic Studies. In a nutshell, we have in a short period proved that a Government Corporation can also adopt innovative practices and can match the efforts of private sector. We have as a team proved that size does not matter in undertaking innovations and setting standards. 4/What is so special about Tripura? A-The State is special from the point of view of its strategic location, socio-economic factors and the vast natural resources and the prolific talent yet unexplored. The State is progressing very well as the insurgency is coming down very fast with the steps launched by the Government. From the point of view of All India Service Officers the conditions are fast improving as the infrastructure is developing very fast and air and rail connectivity improving very fast. The biggest plus point is the transparency and honesty in the State's administration. The Governance is excellent with one of the best Panchayat Raj institutions in the country in place and the tribal people enjoying autonomy under VI schedule of constitution the ethnic divide is vanishing fast. The system is responsive to public opinion and is efficient, frugal and all encompassing. One of the high point of State is the public leadership that is humane, clean and hardworking and I think best in India in my opinion. There are no beggars in Tripura and that is the hallmark of a caring people, though more than 65% of the State's population is still below poverty line. These qualities have also percolated down the administration. The Forest department and its officers are one of the best as they do real hard work first hand. Much more than this it is the confidence and the freedom given by the State Government to me in running the Corporation with the help of committed board members that had significantly contributed in our success. It is the vision of State's Chief Minister that the Corporation is realizing with the help of all concerns including the support of Government of India. Non Congress political parties worried Bhupal Singh is Vice Chancellor of Bhopal University Singh is Secretary MRTP Commission Sunil Khatri to return AP ! A K Jain to take charge on December 1 Tenure of Garg to expire this month Asthana promoted and posted in Railway Board Dr Brahmachari to be DG CSIR ! Kumar is ED Corporate Coordination in Railway Board Rajshekhar moves to WCR Anand posted in Coach Factor Rae Bareilly Kapil Sibbal turns down two names Kumar is DDG NIRD Dalal to be Chairman in Haryana IRSME promotions Virdi transferred to COFMOW Statistical officer to join BSF Barua is Director IIM Ahemdabad Term of Nagaraja extended e-Mail of Joint Secretary hacked Retirement age raised in Assam IAS officer is Secretary Sikkim Assembly Sharma is Member Sikkim PSC K. N. Sharma has been appointed as a Member of Sikkim Public Service
Commission FORUM PWD and Tax Payer The TOI on 9th Nov. carried an interesting feature on repairs of officers'
quarters in Hyderabad. It's practice-common knowledge that most govt.
quarters are built to very poor specifications and material used. Yet
to put cheap PWD quality tiles seems to cost as much as granamite! Cheap
wooden cupboards cost more than teak ply cupboards! And finally the
quarters are more than 50 years old!! It's just like most govt. staff
cars - if you add the cost of repairs a new Corolla/Civic may be a far
cheaper option but yet MoF says 150,000 kms or 8 years. How much more
oxygen will one pump into stuff that should be demolished or thrown
out of the window instantly? And then hypocritically talk of budget
deficits! Why not instead wind up the PWDs, fund their VR by selling
these very houses and give all officers 60% of their post-CPC salaries
as HRA and make it non-taxable too? Similarly, a lumpsum monthly figure
on a scaled basis, say Rs. 10000 to a DS level officer would pay for
an EMI on a decent car and some amount of O&M expenses too. Wind
up the garages and gift the cars to VR drivers. The taxpayer would be
the single and biggest beneficiary. Mr Bahuguna Tripura cadre IFS officer What has not been mentioned about Dr Bahuguna here is that he is the main propelling force behind the JBIC Project that has started recently in Tripura, being the first such externally aided project. Angshuman Dey TAIL-PIECE Jab tak mile na they judaai ka tha malaal, ab ye malaal hai ki tamanna nikal gayi...we are all seem to be waiting for Pay Commission to take care of all our ills but if the ills still persist, then what ? Ravi Pipal Aaj Ki Aawaz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three new EDs in Bharat Electronics Narayanan is ED Indian Overseas Bank Mittal is ED UCO Bank Agrawal appointed ED of Allahabad Bank Vedi is now ED of Canara Bank Dua is ED of Allahabad Bank Bhasin is new ED of United Bank of India Sen is ED of Dena Bank |
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Dr
Suresh Mehrotra has his lips sealed, if you have any whispers then send it to
us |
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