The Hindu Business Line : Kudumbashree to be expanded in Kerala

THE Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, has said that the scope and reach of the Kudumbashree poverty eradication programme would be expanded to cover more sectors.

Delivering his Independence Day speech at a colourful function here, the Chief Minister said Kudmbashree had become a nationally acclaimed model for fighting poverty in the rural outback by engaging poor households, especially their women members, in gainful employment.

The State Government proposed to piggyback on its success and expand coverage with the avowed mission to eradicate poverty, he added.

A joint programme of the Government of Kerala and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and implemented through

Community Development Societies (CDSs) of poor women, Kudumbashree seeks to eradicate absolute poverty in 10 years through concerted community action under the auspices of local governments.

The mission statement says that this is sought to be achieved by organising the poor and combining self-help with demand-led convergence of available services and resources for tackling the multiple dimensions and manifestations of poverty.

E-governance: According to Mr Antony, the Government wanted to move further ahead with its e-governance initiatives in line with its stated policy of translating the beneficial aspects of information technology into tangible advantages on the administrative front reflected best in the ease of service delivery.

The e-governance initiative is to be built on a core communication backbone that links the administrative capital with district headquarters, and facilitating instantaneous service delivery in as transparent a manner as possible.

Also on the anvil is a policy statement on how the public can look forward to benefit from the evolving technology-enabled dispensation, the Chief Minister stated.

He expressed satisfaction over the State's achievements in administrative decentralisation programme, and made particular mention of results from a recent national survey which placed it second only after Punjab in terms of all round development achieved.

However, the recent spate of suicides that is attributed to a variety of trigger-factors, including crop loss and ensuing indebtedness, the restive higher educational sector and tardy progress in industrialisation had all left a tinge of bitter taste even as the State set about savouring successes on other fronts.

Ideological blinkers should not be allowed to obscure the larger developmental vision, he said in reference to an avalanche of protests and demonstrations mounted by various parties and organisations in recent times denouncing various policy initiatives taken by the Government.

The Chief Minister called for concerted efforts to put the State's common good on top of all divisive agenda and create enabling atmosphere for the industrious Keralite, known outside for his single-minded focus and professional integrity, to be as productive and result-oriented on the home turf, too.

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