Centre looking to help farmers in state: Pala

SHILLONG, June 17: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is looking to provide a platform to local farmers of the state to sell their produce through its Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) programme.
Shillong MP Vincent Pala, who attended a virtual meeting with Union Tribal Affairs Minister on Thursday, said that the Ministry, through the TRIFED, can help the farmers of the state to sell their forest produce.
During the meeting, Union Minster Arjun Munda said that Meghalaya has huge potential in terms of market for broomstick and other forest produce, while adding that farmers can be trained on their cultivation and marketing.
According to Pala, the programme, if implemented, would enable farmers to even sell their produce on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon.
He also stressed on training pertaining to packaging of products for farmers, who, according to him, should be given more assistance.
‘Don’t compare state with Bihar’
Meanwhile, Pala, who had earlier expressed unhappiness over the recent Performance Grading Index (PGI) report on education which identified Meghalaya as the worst performer, said that Meghalaya should not be compared with Bihar.
Pala maintained that the education sector in the state has given a lot of employment and even governments earlier had allocated half of its revenue towards this sector.
Pala reiterated that Meghalaya has got zero marks in many of the parameters because of the poor connectivity and infrastructure, adding that schools should have been graded for their performance. He admitted that the report will have negative bearing on students trying to seek admission outside just because the state has been compared with Bihar.