Campaign

In an effort to bridge the rural – urban divide, the Panchayat Raj Ministry was promoting Rural Business Hubs (RBH) across the country in backward areas, said V. Narayanan, Honorary Advisor to Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India. He was talking to reporters here on Sunday during his visit for launching a campaign to educate the rural masses on Panchayati Raj, Right to Information Act and 123 Nuclear Agreement at Madukkarai block. Mr. Narayanan said that the best way to bridge the rural and urban divide would be to ensure economic empowerment of rural areas through employment generation for ensuring social justice.

The efforts all along had been to provide infrastructure but owing to urbanisation, rural areas were getting deserted. Tamil Nadu was witnessing the highest rate of 40 to 45 per cent urbanisation. Through village industries centres, the rural areas could witness nurturing of region-specific industries based on raw material availability, he said. Any project mooted by the gram sabha forwarded to the Centre through the State Government with its consent would get cent per cent funding. The effort was to ensure direct flow of funds to the villages.

In Tamil Nadu, Villuppuram, Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Dindigul, Sivaganga and Nagapattinam had been identified as backward districts. The project aims at roping in private partners wherein the public and panchayati raj would come together and carry forward the rural industrial project. Panchayati Raj Ministry and the Government would act as a catalyst.

Mr. Narayanan said that the ministry had come out with Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) which came without any conditions or restrictions and could be used as a gap fund for taking forward the priorities of the local body. In Yavatmal district in Vidharba region of Maharashtra that witnessed large-scale farmers’ suicides, the ministry had initiated cotton to cloth manufacturing facility and would be improved as cotton to garment facility. In Coimbatore, the ministry was exhorting Coimbatore District Small Scale Industries Association to start industrial units in rural areas. Ultimately, the ministry was aiming at ensuring convergence of the Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 crore spent on rural areas for achieving the desired results.

In Tamil Nadu, there could be a project wherein Marakkanam block in Villuppuram district would try to produce and export algae at an outlay of Rs. 10 lakh under the Rural Business Hub (RBH) initiative. When asked whether industrialisation of rural areas would affect agriculture and food security, Mr. Narayanan said that productivity of lands was only at 30 per cent in India and that could be enhanced and small industrial units need not be at the cost of agriculture.When asked about promoting toddy tapping and export of processed toddy, Mr. Narayanan said that if it was in conformity with the law and practice of the region, then it could be adopted.

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