Agartala: Tripura will be declared fully literate in September next year, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said on Tuesday.

"On the occasion of World Literacy Day (September 8) next year, Tripura will be declared an entirely literate state. The final phase of all out efforts to achieve this goal has begun," Sarkar told a meeting of the state literacy mission authority.

According to the 2001 census, Tripura was the 12th most literate state in India with 73.66 percent literacy and the second most literate state in northeast region after Mizoram, where the literacy rate was 88.49 percent.

According to a study by the Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute in 2006, the literacy rate in Tripura had risen to 80.14 percent.

According to the state information department, 64,000 of the 3.8 million people in Tripura are illiterate. IANS