The Hindu : New Delhi News : Cold carts given to manual scavengers

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Sunday, Oct 05, 2008
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New Delhi

Cold carts given to manual scavengers

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Mobile cold carts used for selling fruits and vegetables were distributed to 31 identified manual scavengers by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in Sarojini Nagar here over the weekend as part of an initiative to make the beneficiaries self-reliant.

Under the project, persons engaged in scavenging are being given mobile cold carts fitted with cold technology that helps keep fruits, vegetables and even dairy products fresh. These carts would be parked in residential colonies and licences for their operation have been issued by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The carts, which cost Rs.71,575 apiece, are being subsidised to the extent of Rs.58,875 by an NGO, `We the People’, while the MCD has contributed Rs.13,700 per cart towards training, rent, services and hawking fees.

Delhi Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said the Delhi Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classses/Minorities and Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation had come into being in 1983 with the sole objective of economically upgrading the downtrodden members of the Scheduled Castes. Accordingly, the Corporation chalked out a strategy to rehabilitate identified manual scavengers by extending loan facilities as well as by imparting training to them in different job-oriented courses.

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