TIRUCHI: In what could be a first of its kind public-private sector partnership initiative in the State, the Tiruchi zone of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has planned to join hands with the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) in implementing need based intervention programmes to spur socio-economic development in select villages in the district.

The programme would seek to promote sustainable development in villages, especially in areas such as sanitation/hygiene, micro enterprise, market linkages, skill training and capacity building for women and youth.

To start with, four villages, Navalurkuttapattu in Manikandam union, Ellakudi in Thiruverambur union and the pilgrimage centres of Samayapuram and Gunaseelam in Manachanallur block, have been identified as places with scope for implementing the joint initiative.

The initiative would seek to bridge the demand-supply gap of development schemes and utilise the management skills of the corporate sector for the growth of rural economies, the Chairman of the Tiruchi CII zone, M.P. Ramasamy, said speaking at an "advocacy" meeting, `Beyond Business - Corporate Social Responsibility,' hosted jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the District Rural Development Agency here recently.

In broader terms, the CII or its members would adopt the villages to promote self-sufficient and clean villages with a special focus on the economic growth of self-help groups.

A social mapping is to be taken up at the identified villages, to assess the existing socio-economic conditions, based on which an action plan would be drawn up.

Collector's appeal

The Collector, K. Nanda Kishore, appealed to the CII to focus on sanitation or hygiene as any investment in the sector would proportionately bring down the expenditure on health care.

The corporate sector could play a major role in training and promoting awareness of sanitation and hygiene, he said.

The Project Officer of the District Rural Development Agency, M. Manohara Singh, in a presentation, observed that there was a need for focussed and coordinated private-public partnership initiative to channelise the available resources in specific areas such as health, micro-enterprise and social security.

While a huge amount of Government funds was being pumped into sanitation and poverty alleviation programmes such as the Total Sanitation Campaign and the Sampoorna Gramin Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), there was a need for continuous motivation of the stake-holders.

Industries could also guide the economic growth of the massive rural women force mobilised by voluntary organisations as self-help groups.

Voluntary organisations have succeeded in capacity building and industries could guide the economic activities of the self-help groups.

Industrial units could set up ancillary units utilising the services of the self-help groups, which could avail the government subsidies and credit, he suggested and added that there would be no cap on credit assistance for such projects taken up by self-help groups.

The former Chairman of the CII, P.V. Kannan, pointed out that a private diary unit has successfully partnered a self-help group at Karupur village for establishing a diary and milk chilling plant.

The micro-enterprise was now set for expansion and the partnership model could be replicated in other parts of the district.

The Vice-Chairman of the CII, B.V. Ramanan, and others spoke.

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