AP govt committed to empowerment of women: CM

Hyderabad, May 28 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today said that his government was committed to empowerment of women in the state through various schemes.

In a letter felicitating each member of the Self Help Groups (SHGs) Village Organisation for maintaining financial discipline while transacting under bank linkage loan programme, the Chief Minister hoped that the rural women folk would build up a bright future on the basis of the new scheme 'Pavala Vaddi scheme'.

He said the primary objective of the scheme under Indira Kranti Patham programme was to provide assistance to the deserving and eligible benificiaries through bank credit and involving women SHGs in their own development works like agriculture, marketing and dairy farming. Several banks were involved in fundin the loan to these groups.

With the state government's objective of total eradication of poverty, it was aimed to bring all the poor and downtrodden into the ambit of SHGs and Indira Kranti Patham. To achieve this the government was seriously contemplating to enhance the annual income limit of Below Poverty Line norm from the existing national specification of Rs 21,600 to Rs 60,000 in the state.

Dr Reddy said the government was contemplating to provide more than Rs 10,000 crore in the next three years for enhancing the economic conditions of women SHGs under the Pavala Vaddi initiative through Indira Kranti Patham.

Expressing concern over the exploitation of the poor by certain Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) in rural areas, who were collecting a flat interest rate of 24.30 per cent, he said these institutions were availing loans from other banks at an interest of seven per cent.

The Chief Minister called upon bank officials to increase the lending to SHGs to prevent the poor from approaching MFIs.

UNI ASJ AJ ROY SB PC1800