Ministry of Panchayati Raj, KVIC sign MoC to work towards rural business hubs

New Delhi, Feb 26 (ANI): Panchayat Raj Minister Mani Shanker Aiyar today said that the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and KVIC have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) to work jointly towards the Rural Business Hubs (RBH) in rural areas by converging Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) and other schemes of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

Informing the Rajya Sabha in a written reply, Aiyar said, "It is expected that such joint working will help generate employment as well as higher and sustained income for rural producers through better marketing and convergence of schemes of KVIC with Panchayats. Joint working arrangement will be operational for a period of three years from the date of signing of the MoC."

Under the MoC, Panchayats can propose viable projects under the PMEGP scheme of KVIC, which will be placed before the district level task force in which there will be three members representing Panchayats.

"Though this arrangement is operational in all PMEGP districts, special attention will be given in RBH focus districts. Phulbani and Koraput and Ranchi and Deoghar are the RBH focus districts in Orissa and Jharkhand respectively," he added.

The Minister said KVIC has supported 118 clusters under their Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) scheme.

"Under the MoC, it is proposed to extend marketing linkages to these clusters. Beekeeping cluster, Chamoli (Uttrakhand), Bamboo cluster, Kalpetta (Kerala) and Bamboo cluster, Mizoram have been identified as pilot clusters for such intervention," he said. (ANI)