Rs 300cr earmarked for developing over 300 SC/ST colonies'

Under the programme, government finances Rs 80,000 for the purchase of auto rickshaws costing Rs 1.30 lakhs each, towards their economical empowerment through self employment. For the beneficiaries within the city jurisdiction Udupi CMC sponsored a seed money of Rs 20,000 each and for the beneficiaries outside the city limits, Syndicate Bank sponsored the seed money of Rs 20,000 each as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. For the remaining Rs 30,000 they bought a loan from Syndicate Bank.

On the occasion 9 students of Koraga community were given cheques of Rs 10,000 each towards meeting the expenses of their higher education, eight beneficiaries were given cheques for meeting the electrification coast of their houses and 6 Koraga families got the first installment of funds for building the houses.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Acharya said that government has reserved Rs 300 crores for developing over 300 scheduled caste-scheduled tribe colonies as model hamlets. Each hamlet would be developed by spending Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 1.5 crores. Out of that Rs 50 crore would be utilized for the development of Koraga hamlets in DK and Udupi districts.

In his presidential address Udupi MLA K Raghupathi Bhat demanded the government to reserve certain jobs for the educated youth from the primitive tribal communities like Koraga or Jenu Kuruba.

Udupi district ITDP Officer Urmila said that the programme was aimed at confidence building, economic empowerment and providing social responsibility. She said that as per the action plan prepared by the Zilla Panchayath, during the coming academic year beneficiaries would get a grant for buying taxis.

Kaup MLA Lalaji R Mendon, Udupi CMC President Kiran Kumar, Deputy Commissioner incharge Prabhakar, Manager of Syndicate Bank Regional Office Hemanth Bhide, councilor Suresh Shetty and others were present.