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Tag: Biplab Kumar Deb

  • Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb’s cabinet expanded

    By PTI

    AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday expanded his eight-member cabinet for the first time since the BJP-IPFT government came to power by inducting three new faces.

    With the induction of the three new ministers – Ramprasad Paul, Bhagaban Das and Sushanta Chowdhury – the total size of the cabinet has risen to 11.

    Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya administered the oath of office and secrecy at the Durbar hall of the Rajbhavan here.

    The three new ministers are yet to be allocated their portfolios.

    Ramprasad Paul (50) and Bhagaban Das (47) have passed class eight, while Sushanta Chowdhury (41) is a postgraduate, officials said.

    The decision of cabinet expansion was taken at a meeting of the BJP core committee on Monday night following several rounds of discussions in the presence of the party’s central leadership.

    A host of BJP leaders including party national secretary Dilip Saikia, its north east zonal secretary (organization) Ajay Jamwal, Tripura unit prabhari Vinod Sonkar and general secretary (organization) Phanindranath Sarma arrived in Tripura on Monday on a four-day trip to strengthen the party’s organizational base and attended the core committee meeting.

    Deb and union minister Pratima Bhowmik were present.

    The ten ministers in Deb’s cabinet are Jishnu Dev Verma (deputy chief minister), N C Debbarma (revenue), Ratanlal Nath (education), Pranajit Singha Roy (agriculture), Manoj Kanti Deb (PDS), Mevar Mumar Jamatia (tribal welfare) and Santana Chakma (social empowerment) and the newly inducted Ramprasad Paul, Bhagaban Das and Sushanta Chowdhury.

    As per norms Tripura can have a maximum of 12 ministers.

  • Committed to double farmers’ income by 2025: Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb

    By PTI

    AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Sunday said his government is committed to double the income of farmers in the state by 2025 and has taken several initiatives for the purpose.

    Addressing a programme on the occasion of the 75th Independence Day, he said the government has brought 4,000 hectares of land under organic farming in the current fiscal and the average income of farmers has reached Rs 11,096 per annum from Rs 6,580 in 2015-16.

    “We are committed to double our farmers’ income by 2025 and have taken several initiatives for this,” the chief minister said after hoisting the Tricolour at the Assam Rifles ground here.

    He also stated that the government has introduced a mission for the commercialisation of jackfruit and pineapple.

    “We have initiated a plan to bring 3,600 hectares of land for commercial production of jackfruit and pineapple as there is huge scope for exporting the fruits abroad,” he said.

    In the last 3 years, the state shipped out 33.65 metric tonne of pineapple to foreign countries.

    Tripura Agar Wood Policy 2021 was announced in July, and 50 lakh saplings will be planted by the next five years, which will help earn Rs 2,000 crore from the sector by 2025, Deb said.

    The government has also planned to expand areas under rubber cultivation.

    “About 30,000 hectares of land would be brought under rubber cultivation by 2025,” he said.

    An agreement was signed among the Centre and the governments of Tripura and Mizoram in January 2020 to solve the 23 -year-old ‘Bru refugee’ problem.

    According to the agreement, 37,136 displaced Brus from Mizoram will be rehabilitated at 12 places of Tripura, Deb said.

    The central government has sanctioned Rs 600 crore as a rehabilitation package for the displaced Brus.

    The CM said the ‘Moitree Bridge’ on the Muhuri river has been completed to strengthen the connectivity with Bangladesh.

    The 15-km long Agartala-Akhaura rail line to connect with the neighbouring country would be completed soon, he added.

  • Three arrested on charge of attempting to murder Tripura CM Biplab Deb: Police

    The three men drove a car through the security cordon of the chief minister when he was out on evening walk near his official residence at Shyamaprasad Mukerjee Lane.

  • Tripura wants to be country’s first state to achieve 100 per cent vaccination: CM

    The chief minister on Wednesday tweeted that Tripura has vaccinated 92 per cent of the people above 45 years with the first dose and is at the first position in India.

  • No decision yet on COVID lockdown in Tripura: CM Biplab Kumar Deb

    By PTI
    AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said on Saturday that no decision has been taken yet on imposing lockdown in any part of the state, even as COVID cases continued to jump.

    Speaking to reporters while visiting COVID care facilities in the Sepahijala district, Deb said such a decision is taken when healthcare experts and the administration collectively feel the necessity.

    “There is no decision on lockdown yet,” he said, adding that all updates will be made public.

    In the Sipahijala district, 200 new beds have been prepared at two COVID care facilities, and more than 1,400 beds are being prepared at two other centres.

    Meanwhile, a door-to-door survey has started in three containment zones in the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) area.

    The state government has decided to conduct rapid antigen tests in all houses in the AMC area, Health Department officials said.

    Tripura recorded 449 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, pushing the tally to 40,055.

    The number of active cases climbed to 3,781.

    With three more fatalities, all in the West Tripura district, the death toll rose to 426.

    Altogether 35,338 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the state so far.

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  • No need to panic, Tripura has enough oxygen stock: CM Biplab Kumar Deb

    By PTI
    AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday said the state has adequate stock of oxygen for treatment of COVID-19 patients and urged people not to panic amid the raging coronavirus pandemic.

    The state has a stock of 4,000 oxygen cylinders and 750 concentrators, he said.

    “We have adequate stock of oxygen and people of the state should not be worried about the availability of the life-saving gas.

    The recovery rate among coronavirus patients in Tripura is at 92 per cent, which is better than several other states,” Deb said.

    The health department has taken a slew of steps to make sure sufficient supply of oxygen to all the districts and sub-divisional hospitals, the CM said.

    He visited an oxygen plant at Bodhjungnagar here and took stock of the supply situation from the facility.

    Deb said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured all help to the state in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The chief minister stated that his government has taken measures to speed up the vaccination drive and appealed to people above 45 years of age to get inoculated immediately.

    “Tripura is one of the first two states in the country to have the highest vaccination rate.

    We will soon start the immunisation drive for people in the age group of 18 to 44 years and have placed orders to procure vaccines for the purpose,” he said.

    Around 14 lakh people have been inoculated in the state so far, a health department official said.

    Senior minister and cabinet spokesperson Ratan Lal Nath said the government has decided to appoint 164 doctors through Tripura Public Service Commission on a contractual basis to strengthen human resource in hospitals across the state.

    As many as 148 posts of doctors are vacant in state- run medical facilities, he said.

    At least 359 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura on Saturday, pushing the tally in the state to 37,208, the official said.

    The death toll rose to 402 as two more patients succumbed to the infection.

    Tripura currently has 2,174 active cases, while 34,212 people have recovered from the disease.

  • Mamata lost election from Nandigram, should not become West Bengal CM ‘ethically’: Biplab Kumar Deb

    Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday said that Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee should not become the Chief Minister of West Bengal “ethically” as she has lost the election from Nandigram seat in the recently held state Assembly elections.

    Despite Banerjee losing the seat to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who was once her close aid, the TMC registered a landslide victory in polls winning 213 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly.

    Addressing a press conference at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office here to protest the alleged post-poll violence in Bengal, Deb claimed that though the BJP lost the assembly election in some of the states that went to polls, its vote share increased by several times.

    “Many people have become Chief Minister without contesting the elections, but Mamata Banerjee contested and lost the election from Nandigram. People did not elect her and on this ground, ethically, she should keep herself away from the Chief Ministerial position,” he said.

    “Now Mamata Banerjee is claiming there was a conspiracy against her. If defeat is a conspiracy, then there is a conspiracy behind victory in the election,” Deb added.

    The Tripura Chief Minister further said that the post-poll violence is taking place across West Bengal after the TMC’s win and highlighted that at least five BJP workers have been killed.

    “Houses of BJP supporters are being attacked by TMC-backed goons. Party offices, houses and shops of BJP supporters are either being vandalised or being gutted in fire,” he added.

  • Tripura CM Biplab Deb tests positive for COVID-19, goes into home isolation

    By Agencies
    AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Wednesday said he has tested positive for COVID-19.

    “I have been tested positive for Covid-19. I have isolated myself at home as per the advice of doctors. I request everyone to please follow all the covid appropriate behaviour and stay safe,” tweeted Tripura CM.

    Health officer of West Tripura district Dr Sangeeta Chakraborty said Deb’s samples were collected on Wednesday and a rapid antigen test showed he had the infection.

    “We have collected samples for reconfirmation through an RT-PCR test,” she added.

    Two members of Deb’s family had tested positive for the disease in August last year.

    India has reported over 1.15 lakh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

    According to the Union Health Ministry, the country recorded 1,15,736 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. With this fresh surge, the total number of infections has reached 1,28,01,785.

  • Amit Shah said BJP has plans to form governments in Nepal, Sri Lanka: Tripura CM

    By ANI
    AGARTALA: Chief Minister of Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has plans to expand their party in the neighbouring countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka.

    The Tripura CM while addressing the party workers in Agartala recalled a meeting with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was then BJP national president, during his visit to the state and said, “When the home minister was our party chief, while discussion we said that BJP had come to power in several states.”

    “In response, the minister (then BJP chief) said that Nepal and Sri Lanka are still left. He said that we have to expand the party to Sri Lanka and Nepal. We have to win there too,” Deb added.

    Biplab Kumar Deb was addressing the party workers at an event in the state capital of Tripura.