Agartala: The Tripura State Council of Ministers has approved two crucial schemes for battling child marriage and promoting women-led enterprises in the state, cabinet spokesman and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury told reporters.

Apart from that, the state government has also approved the proposal for filling 104 posts of engineers Grade A and Grade B for state owned power utility—Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL).

Elaborating on the schemes, the Minister said, “The state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Manik Saha has approved a scheme called Chief Minister Balika Samriddhi Yojana under the Social Welfare and Social Education department. Under the scheme maximum two female children of an Antyodaya family will be eligible to get Rs 50,000 as Fixed Deposit after her birth. The beneficiaries shall be able to claim the maturity on attaining the age of 18 years provided she doesn’t get married before.”

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The department has also imposed certain raiders to avoid early pregnancy. “There are certain crucial prerequisites which must be fulfilled to become eligible to access the benefits of the scheme. The mother of the newborn must be 18 years 9 months old at the time of delivery of the child to make the child eligible for the scheme benefit. Apart from that, the delivery must be institutional in nature which means the baby should have been born in a health facility. And, most importantly, if the beneficiary girl gets married before 18 years of age, she will be disqualified from accessing the benefits of the scheme,” he said.

On being asked whether children who were born out of marriages where the mother entered wedlock much before attaining majority, he said, “The department officials would soon come up with clarifications and confusions subsisting on the matter.”

Under the second scheme, the women entrepreneurs will be able to secure a loan worth rupees one crore maximum from the Industries and commerce department. “The government has decided to provide an additional 5 percent subsidy for women entrepreneurs. For male entrepreneurs the cap of subsidy lies at 30 percent,” he added.

According to Chowdhury, this scheme will open new windows of opportunities for enterprising women from rural Tripura. “We are expecting to have a lot of Lakhpati Didis coming up with innovative business ideas and those who already have their own units can scale up to the next level,” said the Minister.

A scheme for religious minorities also received the cabinet nod. “Rs 1.5 crore had been allocated for Sankhalaghu Unnayan Prakalpa, a scheme under which eligible beneficiaries will receive Rs 10,000 grant for setting up small businesses. The grant will be disbursed in two instalments of Rs 5,000 each. Emphasis will be laid on empowering beneficiaries to set up poultry, dairy and duckery units,” he pointed out.

On the job creation, the Minister said, “The government has decided to fill up 104 posts of Manager Electrical and Civil in both Grade A and Grade B categories for Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited. For Grade A, the qualification is B-Tech and for Grade B, the qualification is diploma. The exams will be conducted by the TSECL authorities.”

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