LEH: Government departments like Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Tourism, along with the banks in Leh have been directed to put Self-Help Groups (SHGs) at the core of their schemes to help enhance their income and employment opportunities.
This was decided as Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Shrikant Suse chaired a meeting to finalise the MGNREGA Plan 2023-24 and review the implementation of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in the district at DC Conference Hall on Thursday.
During the meeting, the deliberation focused on developing a road map for rural income generation with special emphasis on promotion of Self-Help Groups in all the rural villages with the aim to increase the income of each SHG member to Rs 10,000 per month as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The meeting decided to promote SHGs to enhance the livelihood opportunities of rural womenfolk and to further establish Village Level Organisation and Community Level Federation to boost the platform for SHGs.
The concerned departments like Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Fisheries were directed to integrate its activities such as cultivation of mushroom and vegetables with rearing of poultry and fisheries as an avenue for SHGs to increase income generation in Rong Thiksey, Panamik and Chuchot blocks.
Under tourism, it was decided to promote homestays in Changthang villages like Hanle, Korzok, etc to be run by Self-Help Groups as a new and unconventional plan under NRLM to increase employment and income opportunities. It also decided to promote e-cycling in Pangong to promote tourism.
Similarly, the banks were directed to enroll SHGs under all the Social Security Schemes while NABARD were instructed to explore the feasibility and creation of Rural Haat in the district to provide a platform for marketing SHG products.
The meeting was attended by Additional District Development Commissioner, Leh; Chief Planning Officer, Leh; HoDS of all the line departments, All Block Development Oficers; All the concerned officers and officials of NRLM, including State Programme Manager, District Programme Manager, District Mission Manager and Block Programme Managers and other concerned departmental officials.
