The Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has announced that the government had decided to give Rs. 16,500 cr. as loans to women self-help groups this year.
Addressing the second anniversary of ‘Stree Nidhi’ in the Gachi Bowli stadium on Saturday, he expressed the hope that women would grow with the help of the government and turn into industrialists. He said the government would allot 30 acres of land in every district to help women grow as industrialists. A meeting on the loan plan of self-help groups for the year 2013-14 was also held in the gachi Bowly stadium. The High Command participated in this meeting also.
The Chief Minister said women should grow in stature and should employ 50 to 100 persons themselves. He said the scheme was being named ‘Indiramma Maha Lakshmi’.
The Chief Minister said initially the government would help setting up of 100 to 150 industries by helping the self-help groups and set up a task force for making this a reality. The Chief Minister said even the central government took inspiration from the ‘Stree Nidhi’ scheme of the state government and set up a National Women Bank with an outlay of Rs. 1000 crore. He said while the government decided to give loans to the tune of Rs. 11.500 crore last year thrugh the Grameena and Pattana Kranti Padham scheme, women had taken loans to the extent of Rs. 12,575 crore, the Chief Minister explained. He said likewise women would also exceed the target and take loans to the tune of Rs. 1500 crore this year. Thanking the bankers, he said they were coming forward with more loans as women who borrowed money were repaying their debts in time. Lauding women that they won the confidence of the bankers, Kiran said it was because of this confidence that bankers were lending without any kind of security. He said while it was decided that Rs. 26,000 crore be given as loans all over the country, women of our state made us proud by taking half of that amount themselves, he added.
The Chief Minister said that of the 1200 Stree Sakti Bhavans being planned, construction of 600 was already completed and assured that an additional budget of Rs. 5 lakh to each of the rest would be sanctioned. He also assured that Village Federations that repay properly would be provided with own buildings. Stating that there were already bildings in 5000 villages, he said this years buildings would be provided in 5000 more.
Stating that all the problems women were facing today were due to illiteracy, the Chief Minister implored on the to get educated and give importance to their children’s education. Stating that the self-help movement took 10 years to come to this stage, the Chief Minister said if only the women were educated, this stage could have been achieved in just one year.
The Chief Minister said that the government had set apart Rs. 12,251 crore for the sub-plan to ensure comprehensive development of the SCs and STs. He also explained that the government had recently started ‘Amma Hastam’ scheme to provide food security to the poor. He asked people to develop understanding abut the government’s programmes so that hey would be able to derive maximum benefits from the schemes. (NSS)
