Mitaram Basumatary inaugurates the training centre in Kokrajhar

Sept. 16: Incense sticks may stretch the possibilities of employment in the Bodo belt where the administration is opening centres to train youths to make the most of the abundant bamboo in the region.

Bodoland Territorial Council executive member Mitaram Basumatary inaugurated an agarbatti stick-making training centre in Kokrajhar yesterday.

The National Bamboo Mission and Bodoland Bamboo Development Board are the primary investors.

Technology partner Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre will help with the marketing.

The centre can accommodate 35 trainees at a time for the 35-day programme.

“We hope youths will come and join this new endeavour and make a new livelihood out of it,” mission director of Bodoland Bamboo Development Board J.D. Brahma said.

Brahma said the training programme would incorporate all the latest techniques in bamboo agarbatti-stick making so that the participants are equipped to make the best available products.

Emphasising the vast potential of bamboo-based industry, Brahma said the BTC has around 40,000 hectares of bamboo groves.

Another 12,000 hectares can be brought under bamboo cultivation.

“If we do not make the most of it now, we will be losing out on a golden opportunity. This is such a wonderful resource it should not be lost,” Brahma said.

Bamboo, which grows abundantly in the state, is being pegged as the source of economic revival in the region.

BTC executive member and chairman of the Bamboo Board, Mitaram Basumatary, said the administration is trying to tap the bamboo’s potential to the fullest.

He said the BTC has already tied up with neighbouring countries like China and other states in this mission.

The Bodoland Bamboo Development Board and International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, a Beijing-based organisation, have signed an MoU to build a bamboo shoot processing centre in Kokrajhar.