Financial assistance extended to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry by NABARD for various purposes witnessed a growth of 24 per cent from Rs. 2,691crore in 2008-09 to Rs 3,340 crore in 2009-10.
The State unit of the NABARD provided support to the State Government in creation of rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF), promoting and supporting ideas, practices and innovations conducive to rural development, besides providing traditional refinance/co-financing support to banks for production and investment credit for agriculture and allied activities.
According to R.Narayan, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Tamil Nadu, the benefits under RIDF included an improvement of 2,700 km of rural roads, and construction of 99 bridges. Infrastructure facilities comprising classrooms and furniture, laboratory and laboratory equipments, toilet blocks, drinking water facilities etc. in 303 schools benefiting around 1 lakh students; irrigation projects such as standardisation of supply channels, modernisation of tanks construction of bed dam, etc. benefiting 27,000 hectares of land.
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During the year, 712 farmers’ clubs were launched in the State, taking the total number of clubs to 2,935.