The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Stalin to disburse fund to 3,000 self-help groups

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Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Stalin to disburse fund to 3,000 self-help groups

Staff Reporter

Each will get Rs. 10,000 towards subsidy

KRISHNAGIRI: Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin will disburse Rs. 18 crores as revolving funds to 3,000 women self-help groups in Krishnagiri fistrict on November 1.

Indian Bank, the lead bank for the district is extending 50 per cent of the fund as loan. Each group will be given Rs. 10,000 as government subsidy and Rs. 50,000 as loan.

K. Sridharan, Joint Director (Rural Development) and Project Officer for Mahalir Thittam for the district told The Hindu that the purpose of forming self-help groups is capacity building and motivating women to become self reliant. Each SHG will be given a minimum of Rs. 50,000 as loan for the first time, Rs. 1,00,000 in the second stage and Rs. 2,00,000 in the final stage as loan. The decision to this effect was taken at a recent State-level bankers meeting.

“An SHG can be formed with 12 to 20 women The loan can be used for any purpose such as paying fees of children, buying household articles etc. ” he added.

The Mahalir Thittam Department has exceeded the target fixed during the last financial year (2007-08) for forming self-help groups. A total of 367 women self-help groups were formed in villages coming under the Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam as against a target of 365 groups.

In other villages 200 women self-help groups were formed as against the target of 225. In urban areas 103 self-help groups were formed as against a target of 100 and 200 youth self-help groups.

District Mahalir Thittam department will organise training for 150 girls through government-sponsored Fostering Technologies in Rural Areas call centres in the district. Beneficiaries under the scheme had already been interviewed and the training programme begins on October 20. All the trainees will be given placement as soon as they finish the training. The expenses of Rs. 8,000 a person is borne by the government.

Fifty girls will be given training in nursing at the Vivekananda Nursing College in Dharmapuri, free of cost, Mr. Sridharan added.

Recently, some government banks have started charging 1.15 per cent towards processing fee to extend loan to SHGs. This will be waived soon, B. Vadivelu, Indian Bank manager told The Hindu.

“The moment we get the order from the head office, we will waive the processing fees for new loans and return what has been already collected,” Mr. Vadivelu added.

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