Palghar: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed his government’s commitment to provide a sustainable livelihood to tribals in the state and bring them into the mainstream.

The CM along with 70-year-old tribal Raghu Aware, who had been a victim of bonded labour, planted a bamboo sapling on a land allotted to the latter at Vasai in Palghar district on Monday amid rains.

The initiative was part of the ‘Bamboo Mission’, aimed at planting one crore bamboo trees across Thane and Palghar districts, as per a release issued by a social organisation run by former MLA Vivek Pandit, who heads the state committee for reviewing tribal welfare schemes.

The release said Fadnavis greeted the tribal man with folded hands and said, “Raghu is no longer a victim of bonded labour. Today, he becomes Maharashtra’s first bamboo farmer under the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).” The CM emphasised that the programme, which will be executed under the employment guarantee scheme, is designed to change the lives of tribals, offering them a sustainable livelihood and bringing them into the mainstream.