After the job guarantee scheme played a crucial role in UPA’s reelection the government is working on a plan to reach out to 100 mil lion tribals to ensure remun eration for minor forest pro duce.

New Delhi In a move that is expected to benefit millions of people earning their livelihood from the forest, the government has decided to appoint a special commission for fixing minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produce like bamboo, mahua and tendu leaves.

The commission is expected to be appointed by January 2013 under the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation (Trifed), tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo said on Monday. The Planning Commission has already given its approval for setting up such a commission. “There is a procedure for setting up a commission. We have received a go ahead from the Planning Commission and Trifed will be its nodal agency,” Deo said.

One crore 60 lakh saplings have been planted in the state so far during the current rainy season. Similarly, five lakh saplings of Mahua have also been planted.

Ratan K Pani

PAIKMAL: Lack of rain has left residents of predominantly tribal block Paikmal high and dry. With irrigation still a mirage, the tribals depend on sale of non-timber forest produce (NTFP), mahua in particular, six months a year to eke out a living. For the rest part of the year rainfed agriculture and migration sustain them.

Yet government policy has forced many people to give up mahua their nutritious staple food