Rs 161 cr to empower women in MP

The Tejasvini Rural Women Empowerment Project will provide new and better livelihood opportunities for women.

In an attempt to encourage micro-finance activities, the Madhya Pradesh government today sanctioned the Rs 161-crore Tejasvini Rural Women Empowerment Project.

The project, launched with the assistance of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFED), will initially cover six districts and strengthen 12,000 women self-help groups in nearly 24,090 villages.

"As many as 200,000 women will benefit from the scheme," Narendra Sigh Tomar, the Minister for Rural Development and Public Relations, said, adding that the project will be launched in Balaghat, Dindori, Mandla, Panna, Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh districts.

"The project aims to form self-help groups, set up an apex body and increase the access of women to micro-finance. This should provide new and better livelihood opportunities for them," he said.

The Madhya Pradesh Women Finance and Development Corporation, under the charge of the Women and Child Welfare Department, will act as the nodal agency to implement the project. A state-level project unit would be constituted for its implementation.

The state cabinet has also decided to earmark a fund of Rs 14.56 crore to provide facilities to the judges of subordinate services. The cabinet also made provision of Rs 8.46 crore from the next year to provide better facilities to the judges. "This has been done so that our judges can work in better ambience," the minister said.

The state government would pay 50 per cent of the power and water bills of the judges with a cap of Rs 1000 and Rs 100 respectively. "These expenditures would be reimbursed quarterly on surrendering the receipt to the district and sessions judge or head of the department," said the minister.

The members of the judicial service will now be entitled to subscribe to a national daily, a regional daily and a social and business magazine. In addition, the state government will compensate the city compensatory allowance and a uniform allowance of Rs 5,000 in blocks of five years. The members of the judicial service will also get a rent-free accommodation.

District and sessions judges, senior additional district and sessions judges and chief judicial magistrates would be provided an independent government car. Budget provision of Rs 1.71 crore will be made for purchase of 43 new vehicles for this purpose.

An amount of Rs 1.29 crore will be earmarked for petrol and diesel expenses in lieu of pool vehicles. Further, the state government will offer a loan of Rs 2,50,000 to members of the judicial service at nominal interest rates. There will be a facility for members of the judicial service to repay loan in easy instalments, fixed by the finance department.

Besides all this, a monthly entertainment allowance will also be given "" Rs 1,000 for district judges, Rs 750 for civil judges (senior scale) and Rs 500 for civil judges (junior scale).

They will also get medical facilities, travel allowance (as per eligibility or once in four years for any place in India from the place of their posting), special pay, leave encashment facility and transfer grants.

"In case, district collectors fails to arrange a rent-free accommodation for a subordinate judicial service member, they would rent a suitable house for him," said the minister. The judges who live in their own houses would be entitled to house rent allowance and a telephone with STD facility.

"These facilities would entail a financial burden of Rs 10.86 crore as a non-recurring expenditure," said the minister. An additional sum of Rs 5.97 crore would be required as the recurring expenditure.

The retired members of judicial service would also be entitled to medical facilities and allowance with effect from November 1, 1999.

Domestic help allowance of Rs 1,250 per month would be payable to the retired members. In this case, Rs 3.63 crore would be the non-recurring expenditure and Rs 56,70,000 would be the recurring expenditure.