self help: TN self-help groups to go up to 1 lakh

Chennai, Aug 12: The Tamil Nadu government will increase the number of members of Self Help groups in the state to one crore within the next five years, State Local Administration Minister M K Stalin said in the State Assembly today. "The government would take steps to add another 25,000 SHGs and 10,000 youth SHGs to the existing strength, during this current fiscal," Stalin announced, while replying to the demand for grants for the Rural development and Local Administration Department. "A sum of Rs.10 crore will be allocated for SHG loans and training the members," Stalin said. Accusing the previous AIADMK government of "hastily" forming as many as 1.2 lakh SHGs on the eve of assembly polls, for "political gain", Stalin said those SHGs lacked proper training and most of them failed to meet the standards. In a bid to provide them training, the government has increased the grant for voluntary organisations involved in training SHGs, from Rs.100 to Rs.350, Stalin said. The government will also increase the daily grant for SHG members to Rs.45 from the existing Rs.7.5, he added. Denying AIADMK's claim that the concept of SHGs was an AIADMK pet project, Stalin said it was the DMK which introduced the SHG scheme for the first time in Dharmapuri in 1989. (Our Correspondent) Published: Saturday, August 12, 2006