Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday met the tribal community of Nipania and Kevalari villages of Katni district, who are becoming self-sufficient by selling forest produce chironji, during a road show organised in Bargaon.
The Chief Minister provided an assistance of two lakh rupees to make the sale of Chironji being done by the tribals more commercially efficient and strong.
The tribal society presented a packet of Chironji as a gift to Chief Minister Chouhan.
Chief Minister Chouhan appreciated the district administration for the efforts made towards making the tribal society economically capable. The tribal community of Nipania and Kevalari, who met the Chief Minister during the road show, told that after forming the Rani Durgavati Multipurpose Co-operative Society and setting up a Chironji processing unit with the help of the ATMA project of the Agriculture Department, they started getting good price for Chironji.
The Chief Minister was very happy to hear this. Talking to the committee members Mahesh Singh and Madan Ureti, he inquired about the whole process of extracting chironji from Achar kernels.
The tribal brothers told the Chief Minister during the discussion that till the setting up of the processing unit, traders and moneylenders used to buy Chironji from them at the rate of only Rs. 100 per kg and themselves used to earn huge profits by selling Chironji in the open market. But now they do the processing and packaging of Chironji themselves and sell 100 grams of chironji for Rs.180.
The Chief Minister also hailed the efforts made by the administration for the economic upliftment of the tribal class.
About 400 tribal families of Nipania and Kevalari villages, which come under Bahoriband area of the district, have been plucking Chironji kernels from the Achar trees growing in the nearby forest and selling them to traders at throwaway prices. Traders also used to take advantage of their innocence, by persuading them they used to buy expensive Chironji from them at a cheap price of just rupees hundred per kg and earned huge profit by selling them in the open market. But now the situation has changed, the tribals have set up their own processing units by forming a committee with the help of the administration and are now earning income by packaging and selling Chironji.
