UDUPI: Medical Education Minister V.S. Acharya said on Wednesday that all gram panchayats in the State would be provided with a library to mark the Suvarna Karnataka celebrations.

He was speaking after distributing 1,535 yellow cards to eligible beneficiaries of Kodibettu Gram Panchayat under the Public Distribution System, here.

Dr. Acharya said there were 147 gram panchayats in Udupi district. Of these, 50 had libraries. Libraries would be started in the remaining 97 panchayats on October 2.

The panchayats would have to provide a room for the library. Two Kannada newspapers and one English newspaper would be provided in these libraries.

He said the Government was committed to providing food security to poor people in the State.

The survey work for identifying the eligible beneficiaries under the Annapurna Scheme and the Antyodaya Scheme had taken four and a half years.

A meeting of deputy commissioners of districts and chief executive officers of zilla panchayats had been called at Bangalore recently to get proper feedback on the implementation of these schemes.

Nearly 1.04 lakh cards were given to the eligible beneficiaries in Udupi taluk, 70,000 cards in Kundapur taluk, and 40,000 cards in Karkala taluk, the Minister said. The Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government in the State was the first in the country to have provided crop loans up to Rs. 3 lakh at a subsidised interest rate of four per cent.

The Government was also providing loans at subsidised interest rate of four per cent to fishermen and weavers. Till June end, nearly 2.46 lakh farmers took crop loans of Rs. 720 crore in the State.

As per the Government projections, 13 lakh farmers in the State would be taking crop loans totalling Rs. 3,200 croreby the end of March 2007, he said.

The State Government would be providing bicycles to girl students studying in standard eight hailing from families living below the poverty line. The Government had earmarked Rs. 35 crore for the bicycle scheme, Dr. Acharya said.

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