Union minister Pralhad Joshi begins 2-day visit to Tripura, approves proposal to set up FCI regional office in Agartala

“The Government of India approved a Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) scheme to increase storage space in the Northeastern states. With this initiative, FCI aims to double its storage capacity in Tripura by constructing an additional capacity of 70,000 MT in two years,” said the minister.

Joshi also visited Charilam in Sepahijala district to take stock of a project undertaken by the Tripura Renewable Energy Development Agency (TREDA).

The minister said the country now generated 214 GW of renewable energy and they have set a target of hitting the 500 GW-mark by 2030.

“Tripura made progress in the renewable energy sector. Before 2018, a total of 2.5 MW of electricity was generated through solar energy in the state. In the last 6.5 years of BJP rule, renewable power generation has increased to 20.5 MW,” said the minister.

Joshi also said the cost of power purchase for Tripura has increased as most of the power comes from gas-based plants, but the installation of solar panels will reduce reliance on high-cost energy.

The Union minister said nearly 1.2 lakh MT of rice was procured in Tripura at the Minimum Support Price benefiting 94,000 farmers in the last five years.

Talking about the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ plan, he said all ration cards in the state have been seeded with Aadhaar and all fair price shops now have ePOS machines to curb misuse.