GUWAHATI, April 12 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has advocated priority profiling and creation of adequate amenities for the farmers of the State to make the Assam Agri-business and Rural Transformation Project (APART) to generate positive waves in the State.
Reviewing APART, an agriculture department project which envisages adding value and improving resilience of agriculture value chains, in the conference room of his office at the Janata Bhawan yesterday, Chief Minister Sonowal asked the implementing agency to take into account the interests and priorities of the farmers to make APART script success stories.
Since the spirit of APART is to spearhead the welfare of the farmers including development of agri-enterprise, agro-cluster and market-led production centres, Sonowal asked the implementing department to create infrastructure for famers� amenities around the production centres.
It may be noted that APART is a project designed to be implemented for five lakh beneficiaries in the State with an initial financial outlay of Rs 1,700 crore. Agri-markets, rural haats, warehouses, etc., will be built as part of the project.
The Chief Minister suggested inter-departmental synergy to make the project serve its purpose. Since market-oriented production remains one of the essential components of the project, Sonowal emphasised that there should be good motorable roads to establish market linkage with the production centres.
He made it eloquently clear that under the project special attention should be made to extend the welfare measures of the government to all areas so that the government can propel development of all areas as a priority.
Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, Media Advisor to Chief Minister Hrishikesh Goswami, Legal Advisor Santanu Bharali, Additional Chief Secretaries Rajib Bora, VS Bhaskar and Ravi Capoor, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Lohiya, Secretary PHE Siddharth Singh, PWD (Road) Commissioner R Kemprai and several senior government officers from eight departments were present at the meeting.
