A 100-dweller unit Periyar Memorial Samathuvapuram was inaugurated here at Thagattur by the Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday. This has ushered in Nagapattinam’s fifth and the State’s 14th Samathuvapuram for the current year.
The Thagattur Samathuvapuram spread over 8 acres has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 2.47 crore.
Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister stated that the project has been conceived to represent the lived years of Periyar and hence the government envisaged 95 Samathuvapurams by 2011.
By far, the current year has seen 14 Samathuvapurams and the year’s target of 29 was sought to be met by December this year. Additionally, 30 Samathuvapurams would be constructed in 2009-10 and 36 by 2010-11, Mr. Stalin said.
Samathuvapurams were conceived in 1997 with over 145 Samathuvapurams made functional upto 2001. Now, the project was revived to meet a target of 95 Samathuvapurams by 2011.
Revolving Fund for SHGs
“The SHG system represents not an organisation, but a movement,” stated Mr. Stalin at the disbursement of the revolving funds for SHGs in the district. Pointing to statistics, Mr. Stalin said that women were high on the scale of credit-worthiness as was evident in the high success rates in the loan repayment of women.
In 2008-09, of the 11,132 crore infused as bank loans for SHGs in the country, over 20 per cent was received by Tamil Nadu, he said. This largely signified the strength of SHGs and the women behind the success of the movement in the State.
