AGARTALA: The World Bank (WB) has agreed to fund for implementation of the North East Rural Livelihoods Project (NERLP) in nine districts of four northeastern states including Tripura, officials said here on Thursday.
WB has approved a 130 million US dollar credit to empower rural communities in the Northeast and improve their livelihood opportunities through NERLP that support the rural poor, especially women, unemployed youths and the severely disadvantaged groups in Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
The NERLP was formulated for improvement of the standard of living of the poor communities by establishing sustainable community institutions and enhancing their livelihood options, officials stated.
The project will be implemented in Aizawl and Lunglei in Mizoram, Peren and Tuensang in Nagaland, South, West and 15 Panchayat wards of East district in Sikkim and West and North districts in Tripura, which would cover 300,000 households in 11,624 villages.
”The project is aimed to reach 70 per cent of the poorer households in each village and almost 35 per cent of the rural population of the region living below the poverty line with low agricultural productivity,” officials said.
”The Centre is committed to address the development challenges in front of the states of the Northeast and we hope that the World Bank’s experience in rural livelihood projects worldwide will help improve employment opportunities for the rural poor in the region,” said World Bank officials. It would hinge on people’s participation and village communities will be helped to design livelihood programme for addressing their economic and social needs, they added. (UNI)