The Hindu : Front Page : Free houses for displaced families

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 05, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Free houses for displaced families

L. Renganathan

Paper major joins hands with district administration for the effort

KARUR: As many as 65 families, displaced owing to an expansion programme of the public sector paper major, the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL), Kagithapuram, near here, are to get free houses soon. The Karur district administration and the TNPL have joined hands to sanction them group-houses at a nearby location.

The TNPL Managing Director, V. Murthy, and the Collector, A. Karthik, met the displaced people, who have been seeking alternative shelter for long. The houses would be constructed on the beneficiaries' own patta lands.

Besides, the TNPL would take efforts to popularise farm-forestry among farmers in the area to meet the growing pulp need of the plant, which would be more than double the present availability following the expansion under way.

This would be done by ensuring that farmers who take up farm-forestry or even wetland-forestry get a regular monthly income till the harvest period through coordinating schemes and benefits from various agencies such as District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) and financial institutions, Mr. Murthy said.

Binding work

In another development, Mr. Murthy interacted with members of a few women self-help groups to explore the possibility of entrusting with them the job of binding notebooks with materials supplied by the TNPL.

The DRDA has been approached to train the selected SHG members in the art of binding and preparing notebooks before they are entrusted with the work.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail