The Hindu : Front Page : Sonia all praise for SHGs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 03, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Sonia all praise for SHGs

B. Chandrashekhar

Manmohan puts searching questions on their functioning

CAN IT WAIT? Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, National Advisory Council, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh interacting with villagers at Bandlapalli near Anantapur on Thursday. Collector Y.V. Anuradha making translation from Telugu.

BANDLAPALLI (ANANTAPUR DT.): Women of self-help groups drawn from 13 districts in which the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is being implemented in the State and a few sarpanches had a lively interaction with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi here on Thursday.

In an interaction session arranged with the visiting dignitaries after the launch of NREGS here, members of village organisations explained about their structure, activity and functioning, the publicity being given by them for the new wage employment scheme among others. In all, 42 SHG women and eight sarpanches participated in the session.

The Prime Minister asked the SHG women whether gram panchayats, its members and sarpanches concerned were cooperating with them in their activities and in the campaign taken up to publicise the NREGS. Zubeida from Nizamabad district replied that cooperation from panchayats was good.

Bank linkage

When he wanted to know about bank linkage to their activities, Ranibai from Karimnagar district said most of their members were clearing loans promptly and they had to pressure others for repayment so that they could also get the benefit of 25 paise interest.

She explained that they were taking financial assistance for agriculture and allied activities such as dairy farming. Asked whether they had any marketing problems, Ms. Zubeida said they had procured maize from farmers with the help of Markfed and helped farmers get good price for their produce. "In the process we also benefited," she said.

YSR suggestion

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy explained about the 25 paise interest rate scheme to the SHGs on prompt repayment and suggested that it be implemented in the entire country. But, the Prime Minister literally shot down the suggestion, asking the latter to stop.

The Chief Minister, however, asked Central assistance for the 4 p.c. interest rate scheme to SHGs. When several SHG women told Ms. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh that they were a highly contented lot as their thrift activity had yielded result. "We too are proud of you," Ms. Sonia said. She also shook hands with several SHG women.

Later at the gram sabha, several villagers explained their needs and works to be taken up under NREGS. They said already 20 families that had migrated had returned after learning that they would get work in the village itself.

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