IMPHAL, July 13 – Manipur Government is likely to enact a legislation to conserve paddyland and wetlands in the State to ensure food security.
The move is being taken up after State Chief Minister O Ibobi acknowledged the need to conserve paddyland and wetlands following a discussion in the Assembly on Friday where opposition MLA O Joy of Manipur People’s Party urged for immediate legislation to conserve paddy and wetlands.
Earlier, moving a private member’s resolution, O Joy expressed the need to adopt a proper legislation to have food security in the State by preventing uncontrollable conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural activities.
He further said that Manipur was facing the problem of limited agricultural products due to decreasing area of cultivation.
In the valley alone, where concentration of population was very high, only about 1,76,000 hectares of cultivable land existed which is disproportionate to the population growth in the valley districts.
On UPA’s emphasis on food security in its annual budget tabled recently, the opposition leader pointed out the contradictory situation in Manipur where paddy fields are fast shrinking. Kerala Assembly had recently enacted a legislation to protect wetlands and paddy fields, sources said.
MLA Dr Ng Bijoy of MPP, said it would be right to have an Act to save cultivable land in Manipur from diminishing.
The Forest and Revenue Minister Thoudam Debendro said that the State Government during 1983, had started a Land Use Board on the instruction of the Union Agriculture Ministry for preservation and conservation of agricultural lands in the State with hundred percent funding from the Centre, but the Board had been abandoned with the lapse of Central funds.
No comments:
Post a Comment