Women exhorted to set up cottage units says Collector Dr Sarath

Kamareddy: District Collector Dr Sarath has called for modernising cottage industries as it would enhance the livelihoods of villagers. He participated as the chief guest at an awareness and training programme on livelihood for presidents and secretaries of mandal women's associations, at the collectorate on Thursday.

Dr Sarath informed that banks were aiming to disburse around Rs 556 crore to 16,011 women's associations in Kamareddy district this financial year. So far, loans worth Rs 242 crore were disbursed to 5,204 women's groups in the district.

Around Rs 29 crore was disbursed by Stri Nidhi Bank which had set a loan target of Rs 107 crore. The Collector hoped that livelihoods would improve if women set up modernised cottage industries. He asked the women to come forward to set up flour mill, oil mill, grocery shops and pulse mills.

He suggested that the participants at the meeting be made well-versed in the know-how of setting up such units and they should rally the village community to encourage the aspiring entrepreneurs. MEPMA will also be showing space for small industries to be set up at the mandal level, the collector said. Reliance Foundation was appreciated for volunteering to facilitate such women development programmes.

Seshasai, a representative from Best Engineering Technology, Hyderabad, explained the details of the various mills and methods used by the staff to the women's associations through a power point presentation.

Additional Collectors Venkatesh Dhotre and D Venkata Madhava Rao, Additional PD Muralikrishna, DPM Ramesh, and a large number of women's associations were present at the programme.