Women SHGs in TN will soon run petrol bunks too, says Minister
CHENNAI: Women self-help groups in the State will be strengthened by listing their products on Union Commerce Ministry’s public procurement portal GeM and renovating the 27 Poomala shopping malls in the districts, TN Minister for Rural Development KR Periyakaruppan has said.
Speaking at a meeting held to review various projects being implemented under the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women, along with Principal Secretary P Amutha, here on Saturday, he said providing bank loans to self-help groups alone would not suffice. “More stores would be set up for marketing their products. Steps would be taken to help them run petrol bunks on national highways and CM Stalin will inaugurate these plans under the women self-help committees soon,” he said.
The minister said steps would be taken to set up e-service centres in all panchayats through Women’s Self Help Groups, through which booking of tickets, payment of electricity bills, issuance of passport, PAN & Aadhaar cards, and others can be done online.
Schemes such as Rural Poverty Eradication Programme, functioning of panchayat associations, Rural Livelihood Programme under the TN Corporation for Development of Women, along with projects implemented under the Urban Livelihood Movement, activities under the Deenadayal
Grameen Kaushalya Yojana and the Tamil Nadu Rural Development Project were reviewed at the meeting.
The programmes for the selfhelp groups through bank loans, skills training, employment opportunities and others were also reviewed. “We need to create more women’s self-help groups and work towards reaching out to self-help groups throughout the government’s programmes,” the minister said.