Port Blair, Sept. 6: In order to realize the vision of ‘Sahakar se Samridhi’, Shri Keshav Chandra, IAS, Chief Secretary, A&N Administration handed over the keys and flagged off five Mobile Rural Marts to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) of Kalighat, Keralapuram, Kishorinagar and Milangram of North & Middle Andaman District and Little Andaman PACS of South Andaman District under the NABARD Scheme of Rural Marts today.

It is a known fact that Diglipur and Little Andaman are famous for their vegetable cultivation and agro-produce. To enable the farmers to gain easy access to Diglipur Market by road as also to use the shipping route from Aerial Bay and Hutbay to reach the markets of Port Blair, NABARD’s Mobile Rural Mart scheme has put five pickup trucks on the road. The launch of the five Mobile Rural Marts will benefit the farmers of 18 villages.

The Scheme is an empowering one as it ensures active participation by PACS, as each PACS contributed 25% of the cost of the vehicle.  Shri Atal Baroi, Secretary, Kalighat SCS Ltd., Shri Joydev Talukdar, Secretary, Keralapuram SCS Ltd., Shri Uttam Biswas, Secretary, Kishorinagar SCS Ltd., Shri Suresh Sammaddar, Chairman and Shri Dilip Halder, Secretary, Milangram and Shri Anjan Biswas, Chairman, Little Andaman SCS Ltd., were commended by the Chief Secretary.

The Chief Secretary also lauded the excellent initiative taken by NABARD and effective support extended by Andaman and Nicobar State Cooperative Bank to facilitate the farmers of the areas.

Smt. Nandini Paliwal, Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Agriculture & Cooperation), Shri C Arvind, Secretary (Finance), Smt. Nandini Maharaj, Special Secretary (Coop)-cum-RCS, Smt. Archana Singh, General Manager/Officer-in-Charge, NABARD, Shri Rahul Damani, Deputy General Manager, NABARD and Shri K Murugan, Managing Director, Andaman and Nicobar State Cooperative Bank Ltd. were present on the occasion.