Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Kerala
By Abdul Lateef Naha
MALAPPURAM, FEB. 15. Entrepreneurs who started the much-acclaimed e-literacy project, Akshaya, in the district have said that nearly 40 per cent of the Akshaya centres begun in May 2003 have closed down weighed down by debt and financial loss. At a press conference here today, the Akshaya Entrepreneurs Forum blamed the inefficiency of officials for the project running into trouble. The forum said that more centres would be wound up if the authorities did not change their attitude. M.M. Sadik, president of the forum, said that if the authorities did not release the funds due to them soon, the project that brought fame to Malappuram district would end in a fiasco. The problems of the Akshaya project had started in the first stage itself. After the project was launched in May 2003, it took about a year to complete the first phase that was scheduled to have been completed in three months. This delay itself, said Mr. Sadik, inflicted a heavy loss on the proprietors of the Akshaya centres. In the initial phase, the project had envisaged to make at least one member from all households in the district e-literate. About 600 Akshaya centres were opened for this, with an average of seven centres in each panchayat. The centre proprietors — or Akshaya entrepreneurs — had to invest about Rs.4 lakhs, half of which was given in loan by banks such as Canara Bank, South Malabar Gramin Bank and State Bank of Travancore at 11.5 per cent interest. As the first phase lagged up to a year, the entrepreneurs suffered financial loss by way of extra interest, electricity bills and rent for the building. Mr. Saik said that they were coerced to buy computer systems with high specifications at high rates. "Some of us had even started sub-centres at our expense, leading ultimately to heavier losses," he said. The Akshaya Entrepreneurs Forum also said that many of its members had suffered a loss of thousands of rupees as they could not sell the handbooks supplied by the Akshaya project authorities. "We got the book only towards the end of the first phase, so we could not sell them. But we had to pay for the books," said K. Somanathan, the animator of the Forum.
Funds due
In a meeting held last September with the IT and district authorities, the entrepreneurs had been assured that the funds due to them would be given within a month. However, Mr. Somanathan said, they were given nothing after five months. Each entrepreneur has to get about Rs.6,000, he said. According to the Forum, the delay in the first stage and the loss due to it were the reason for the failure of the second phase of the Akshaya project, which envisaged launching of various IT-related services and linking of Governmental services to Akshaya centres. The entrepreneurs are still to get money from the panchayats for the data entry services they undertook. The health kiosk planned at Akshaya centres failed because it involved financial commitment on the part of the entrepreneurs. For the equipment needed, a centre will have to invest Rs.10,000. "How can we do that when we are already at a loss?" asked Mr. Sadik.
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