Aizawl: Recently-inducted Governor Vakkom B Purusothaman on Wednesday expressed optimism that the Mizoram government’s flagship programme New Land Use Policy (NLUP) could bring a paradigm shift to the state’s economy.
”This is not a veteran Congressman lauding a Congress government’s policy.
This is my personal opinion and not a political one,” he said at the Raj Bhavan here during his first interaction with the media after he assumed the office two months back.
The farming policy aims at supporting 120,000 farming families over five years to help them do away with the destructive age-old ‘jhum’ or shifting cultivation.
”Through this system of cultivation we were destroying vast forest which is the wealth of the state.
The NLUP aims to restore ecological balance by providing the farmers alternative sustainable and permanent land-based means of livelihood,” he said.
The NLUP aims to keep 60 per cent of the state’s total geographical area under forest cover and the rest for land-based development and also create 21,480 hectares of bamboo plantation to benefit 10,740 families.
About 80 per cent of farmers in Mizoram still depend on ‘jhum’ cultivation, which involves clearing forests and burning the slashed trees, weeds and bamboos.
Expressing his ‘strictly’ personal view on total prohibition of liquor in Mizoram, the governor felt that the Christian-dominated state would be better off without the controversial dry law.
”Prohibition has been tried throughout the world, but it has failed. It has been experimented in India when the country got independence.
It has been tried in my home state Kerala and many other states.
The result was an increase in bootlegging and spurious liquor that killed many people, in addition to loss of huge revenue,” he observed.
It may be recalled that former governor A R Kohli had been criticised by the churches for calling the dry law a ‘total failure’. Citing the US’ experience with prohibition, the governor also pointed out that the term bootlegging was coined during the prohibition when illegal sellers of liquor hid bottles in their boots.
Just like Kerala, which has liberalized liquor after a failure with dry law, Mizoram could earn huge revenue from excise duty.
The governor was well aware that there is plenty of liquor in Mizoram, only the prices are exorbitantly high and the quality of local-made rice beer is very poor.
The governor also believed that Mizoram has the potential to develop tourism industry just like his home state.
”Mizoram has so many things to sell, like culture, natural beauty, handloom and handicrafts. Tourism industry can generate a lot of employment opportunities and income,” he said. (UNI)