The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Stalin distributes funds to self-help groups

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Friday, Sep 15, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Stalin distributes funds to self-help groups

Staff Reporter

Two lakh women in the city `have saved Rs. 15.72 crore'

CHENNAI : "More than two lakh women in the city are members of Self Help Groups and, between them, they have saved around Rs. 15.72 crore," said M.K. Stalin, Minister for Local Administration, here on Thursday.

He distributed funds worth Rs. 1.38 crore to representatives of SHGs from the city. The director, Women Development Corporation, N. Muruganandam, said that this was the first time that such funds were being given to urban SHGs.

R. Jaya, Collector, Chennai, told the members of various SHGs assembled for the event that banks considered them more credit-worthy and likely to repay loans than big institutions.

Representatives of SHGs, Pandiammal and Mookambigai, shared their experiences of joining a self-help group and thanked the current government for having hiked the stipend given during training to Rs. 45.

Ashok Vardhan Shetty, Secretary, Local Administration, reminded the participants that the Manimekalai Awards had been instituted for the best performing SHGs and urged them to try for it.

All self help groups in the city that were more than six months old were assessed on various criteria including maintenance of registers and the number of intra-group loans. Of these, 950 groups were given Rs. 10,000 as a revolving fund on Thursday and would be receiving a bank loan of Rs. 15,000 later. Through Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation, three groups were given cheques worth Rs. 8.5 lakh.

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