World Bank lauds rural empowerment

Bhopal, May 26 : A World Bank appraisal team has lauded the empowerment of common interest groups formed in villages as part of the district poverty initiative project in Madhya Pradesh, officials said.

The team, led by Task Manager Martein Van Niew Koop, visited six villages in Narsinghpur yesterday and interacted with the villagers heading the Village Uplift Commitees. Nearly 800 such committees had already been set up in the state.

The World Bank team apprised themselves with the income generating activities taken by CIGs and the improvement in living standards. They expressed satisfaction that the people's income in project villages had increased, official sources said.

Demonstrating the success of the project, two residents of tribal village Majani informed the team that earlier they eked out a living selling wood stolen from the nearby forest, but now they were engaged in protecting the forest.

Under the project, about 250 acre fallow land had been made cultivable in the past three years and 900 quintals of wheat and gram produced. Financial assistance of Rs 22 lakh has been provided to 31 groups in the village.

UNI