SHILLONG, AUG 15: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday launched the “Restart Meghalaya Mission – RMM” to revive the state’s economy, which came to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over Rs14,515 crores would be spent for implementation of the mission during the next three years.
Announcing this on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day celebration held at the state capital, Sangma said I” am committing an amount of Rs. 14,515 Crores which is to be spent over the next three years for the Restart Meghalaya Mission. Out of this, 7,839 Crores have been earmarked for this year.”
He said the mission comprises a series of programs to support farmers and entrepreneurs and to build growth promoting basic infrastrcture was launched based on the recommendation of the Chief Minister’s Task Force on the Economy.
“We are calling this mission RESTART because we want to revive and give a push to the different development activities that were brought to a standstill by COVID.”
Under the mission, the chief minister said for the first time in the history of the state, the government will enable the Meghalaya’s farmers to avail loans with only 2% interest rate.
“We target to double the reach of the Kisan Credit Card program from the current number of 86,000 within one year. We will also make the KCC loans very attractive by providing an interest subvention of 2% on timely repayment,” he said.
Stating that the year 2020 has already been declared as the “Year of the Farmers”, he said, “The economic slogan today is localization, not globalization. Given this, we in Meghalaya should also strive to become self-sufficient in the production and marketing of agricultural and allied products.”
The CM said Rs 4 crore will be spent for supporting over 400 agri-entrepreneurs in the purchase of power tillers with a 50% subsidy.
Underscoring that collection and agregation of the produce comes next in line, where we need to build economies of scale, he said the government has already started a program for formation of about 10,000 Farmer Producer Groups across the State.
“A corpus fund of Rs10 Crore is being set up to provide lower interest rate loans to Producer Group members. These producer groups will be slowly aggregated into Farmers’ Producer Organizations that will focus on marketing and value addition. We plan to build at least 50 Farmer Producer Organizations across the State by 2022. These Farmer Producer Organizations will become the focal points for taking up higher value addition activities like food processing,” he said.
The Chief Minister said in the immediate term, Rs 15 Crore has been sanctioned for the setting up of modern markets in all the districts of the State. “An additional Rs. 5 Crore is approved for setting up of smaller Farmgate Infrastructure like collection centres. Prefabricated technologies will be used to quickly set up this infrastructure in the current financial year itself,” he said.
Stating that the pigger mission has been restructured to suit the needs of a post-COVID world, the Chief Minister said the mission is funded by a National Cooperative Development Corporation loan of Rs. 209 Crore, of which Rs. 55 Crore will be spent in this year itself.
On promotion of well-being livelihoods in rural areas, Sangma said this year, the MGNREGS expenditure is expected to touch Rs 1,600 crores adding this will translate into an average direct annual income of about Rs 17,000 to the 5,89,000 registered rural households in the State.
“I complement the Community and Rural development team, including all our Block Development Officers and grassroots staff, for consistently making Meghalaya one of the best performers in the country under the MGNREGS program. Recently, the State cabinet made a landmark decision to reserve 50% of the leadership positions in the Village Employment Council’s for women. This decision should further improve the implementation of MGNREGS and the grassroots decision making processes,” he said.
Continuing the theme of women leadership, he said the other focus program under rural development is the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). Under this program 10,329 women Self Help groups were promoted in 2019-20 and Rs. 73 crores was spent. This year we are targeting to reach upto 3,50,000 women at a cost of Rs. 120 crores, the CM said
By Our Reporter
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