Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has said that 33 lakh tendu leaf collectors, mostly belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, are being financially strengthened by the State Minor Forest Produce Association through tendupatta collection in the State. These classes are being provided remuneration and bonus for tendu leaf collection. Of these, 44 per cent are women.
Forest Minister Shah said that 70 percent of the net income generated from the trade of nationalized minor forest produce in the state is spent as bonus to the tendu patta collectors, 15 percent for development and training etc. under the supervision of the Forest department and 15 percent in the implementation of basic amenities and welfare schemes on villages.
Shah informed that last year, leaf collectors were given wages of Rs 397 crore for collection of 15.88 lakh standard bags of tendu patta. This year 16.60 lakh standard bags of tendu leaves have been collected. In the collection year 2018, out of the net profit collected and earned from the business of tendu leaves, an amount of Rs 282.47 crore has been paid as bonus.
The Forest Minister informed that on the instructions of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the collection wages have been fixed from Rs. 2,000 per standard bag to Rs. 2,500 per standard bag. Arrangements have also been made to make cash payment to the collectors according to the quantity collected by them.
In the first phase of Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Yojana, 86 centers have been approved in 13 districts of the state. In this, a center will have 25,800 collectors at the rate of 300 collectors each. Rs.15 lakh has been sanctioned by TRIFED for training and equipment in each center.