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Self-help groups will get all support, says Chauhan

Staff Correspondent

Proposal to form a federation of self-help groups at the State as well as district and lower levels approved

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on Friday extended full support to the self-help groups movement and said everything would be done by the Government to ensure its success.

Speaking at a huge convention of self-help groups at the imposing Lal Parade ground here in the State Capital, he appealed to the members of thousands of self-help groups to join hands and contribute for the progress of Madhya Pradesh.

Addressing the villagers, a large number of them women, who had come here to attend the convention from all over the State, Mr. Chauhan said that he too came from a similar background. "What is important is that there should be commitment and the will to perform and progress." The foreign multinationals look towards India as a huge market, Mr. Chauhan observed.

Citing the example of Durga Bai, an enterprising member of a self-help group who had succeeded in selling brooms worth over Rs. 40,000 at a recent trade fair in Sharjah, he said: "We will not let them (multinationals) convert our villages into a bazaar for their produce. Instead we will try and sell what we produce in the international market."

The Chief Minister approved of a proposal to form a federation of self-help groups at the State as well as district and lower levels on similar pattern as in Andhra Pradesh and said that formal steps would be initiated immediately in this direction.

Reiterating the State Government's commitment to eradication of poverty, Mr. Chauhan said the self-help groups now had the facility to sell their products at Bhopal Haat, Saras Melas as well as international trade fairs. He was all praise for the women members of many self-help groups who faced the mike and spoke fluently at the convention.

Mr. Chauhan said that Rs. 70,000 crores have been spent on various poverty eradication programmes since Independence but a large section of the population still continues to live below poverty line. When the poor decide to break the scourge of poverty, nothing can stop them from marching ahead on the path of progress, he emphasized. Mr. Chauhan announced that self-help groups would be involved in implementing the mid-day-meal scheme.

Acknowledging the proposal for waiving commercial tax and allotment of land at subsidised rates, he said that different works would be identified for the self help groups and a special committee would also be set up to give suggestions in this regard. The State Public Relations department would act as a nodal agency to coordinate related efforts, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, the State Minister for Panchayat, Rural Development and Public Relations, Narendra Singh Tomar expressed concern over the gradual decline in the "spirit of collective endeavour" and rising graph of poverty, exploitation and social injustice.

It is in this scenario that successive Governments have tried to combat poverty by launching various schemes aimed at improving the lot of the weaker sections.

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Self-help groups will get all support, says Chauhan

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