Stalin reviewed the development works

Tirunelveli:The Minister for Local Administration, M.K. Stalin, on Monday visited two villages near here to review the progress made in the `Anaiththu Graama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam', recently launched to strengthen infrastructure in village panchayats and the `Vaazhnthu Kaattuvom' scheme, being implemented to uplift the rural poor.

When he visited Thulukkarkulam near here, he had a brief interaction with the women beneficiaries and the members of Village Poverty Reduction Committee on how the recently launched scheme had improved their living standards since they were being assisted economically to start their business ventures.Most of the 400 below poverty line families of this village, a dry rain-fed region, expressed their desire to go for cattle rearing.

The `Vaazhnthu Kaattuvom' scheme is being implemented in 41 village panchayats under Maanur panchayat union, 43 panchayats under Kuruvikulam union, 23 panchayats of Kadayam union, 16 panchayats of Kadayanallur union, 30 panchayats of Palayamkottai union and 28 panchayats of Sankarankovil union, since all these local bodies have significant number of BPL families.

While Maanur panchayat union has been selected for the first phase of the programme, the rest would be taken up in the second phase, which is expected to improve the livelihood of the poor through various programmes.Later Mr. Stalin visited Kaanaarpatti under Maanur panchayat union, where he inspected a couple of houses being constructed under Indra Awas Yojana, introduced by the Union Government to provide housing facility to rural poor families and inaugurated public drinking water taps and a cement road provided under `Anaiththu Graama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam.' He also inaugurated a library at Kaanaarpatti besides planting a sapling.

The Minister for Environment and Pollution Control, T.P.M. Maideen Khan, the Minister for Social Welfare, Poongothai Aladi Aruna, the Collector, G. Prakash, the Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency, F. Abdul Razick, the Project Officer, `Vaazhnthu Kaattuvom', R. Thangasamy, the MLAs, V. Karuppasamy Pandian of Tenkasi, M. Appavu of Radhapuram, N. Maalairaja of Tirunelveli, and others accompanied Mr. Stalin.