Mangaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the State government will provide all necessary assistance to the Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) that has been working for the empowerment of women and rural development.

Speaking at a function to distribute dividend to self-help group members here on Sunday, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the SKDRDP has been striving a lot to empower women and development of villages. “We will provide all necessary help to SKDRDP and assist it in its work to reach government welfare schemes to more people,” he said.

Lauding the achievement of 99 % in repayment of loans to central banks by SHGs through SKDRDP, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that such a good loan recovery rate can only be seen in SHGs. He said that a similar feat has been achieved by women SHGs formed by the government. Such a good recovery rate from SHGs has made him announce interest free loans up to Rs. 3 lakh to SHGs formed by the government. These SHGSs were paying 4 per cent interest for this amount earlier, he said. To realise the dream of achieving a “hunger free” State, the State government will set up 500 Indira canteens in all the district and taluk centres by January. Like in Bengaluru, these canteens will provide breakfast at Rs. 5 and lunch atRs.10. One such Indira canteen will come up in Belthangady. The State government was giving seven kg rice free to each of the four crore below poverty line card holders with an expenditure of Rs 4 crore.

“Though the State has seen severe drought for the last two years, there is not a single death resulting from hunger,” he said.

The government was also working on bringing transformation in health and education sectors too. On November 15, the State government will launch a universal health scheme under which every citizen will get free treatment at government and empanelled private hospitals. The government was taking care of the health of 10 lakh lactating and pregnant women through the Matru Poorna scheme and providing milk to one crore children across the State.

Expressing happiness over the recent spell of rainfall across the State, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that this has brought smiles on the faces of farmers in the State where a majority of agriculture land is rain-fed. The bountiful rain in the last few days across the State will help farmers in getting a good yield for the Rabi season. The rainfall has helped fill 1.6 lakh agricultural ponds built by the State government at a cost ofRs.100 crore.

Earlier, Mr. Siddaramaiah symbolically launched the exercise to transfer to members of self-help groups the dividend earned by SHGs linked to SKDRDP. As many as two lakh SHGs are distributing dividend of Rs 201 crore. Three beneficiaries of government’s agriculture schemes received aid from Dharmadhikari of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala D. Veerendra Heggade.

The Chief Minister felicitated Mr. Veerendra Heggade on completion of 50 years of anointment as Dharmadhikari. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Heggade said that the SKDRDP has been working on women empowerment through SHGs and also helping people make good use of the various government schemes.

Ministers B. Ramanath Rai, U.T. Khader, T.B. Jayachandra, D.K. Shivakumar and Eshwar Khandre and MLAs Vasant Bangera, Shakuntala Shetty, Vinaykumar Sorake, Gopal Poojary, Mohiuddin Bava, K. Abhayachandra Jain and MLC Ivan D’souza participated in the function.