The district unit of the Kudumbasree Mission has utilised 65.77% of the Plan allocation for the current financial year, putting it along with Thiruvananthapuram among the top spenders for the current financial year. According to figures from the Mission for the period between April and October 20, 2017, Ernakulam has spent ₹7.43 crore of the total allocation of ₹11.29 crore. The Plan fund utilisation constitutes nearly 66% of the total allocation.
The Ernakulam unit of the Kudumbasree Mission comes a close second to Thiruvananthapuram which has spent ₹6.84 crore of the total allocation of 10.24 crore. The spending constitutes 66.75% of the total allocation.
The State Kudumbasree Mission, which had been allocated a total of ₹22.81 crore, has spent ₹16.26 crore, making the expenses more than 71% of the fund allocation. However, the Kudumbasree Mission’s overall State average spending is nearly 56% with the State as a whole having spent ₹89.56 crore of the allocation of ₹161 crore. The overall fund utilisation has ranged between nearly 40% and 71% while most of the districts have spent about 50% of their Plan allocation.
Collective farming
Meanwhile, the collective farming, Season II, under the Mission has made rapid progress. The farming activities have been taken up under the Mahila Kisan Saaktheekaran Pariyojana as a component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission. According to the latest information, Kudumbasree Mission in the State has a total of 60,000 women who are cultivating a total of 55,000 hectares under the programme.
Ernakulam, which has 14 development blocks, has 4,893 Joint Liability Groups undertaking cultivation of a total of 385 hectares of paddy; 338 hectares of vegetables; 496 hectares of tuber crops and 56 hectares of other crops. Districts like Thrissur are much ahead of Ernakulam in terms of acreage under crops under the Joint Liability Groups. Thrissur district has a total of 16 blocks and 3,596 Joint Liability Groups. The groups cultivate 1,245 hectares of paddy; 1,106 hectares of vegetables; 453 hectares of tuber crops, and 32 hectares of other crops.
