World Bank to lend Rs 700 crore for TN anti-poverty programme

The World Bank is planning to provide an additional loan of $154 million (around Rs 708.4 crore) to Tamil Nadu’s Empowerment and Poverty Reduction ‘Vazhndhu Kaattuvom’ project (VKP).

The objective of the project is to assist the poor in overcoming poverty, especially the poorest marginalized groups such as the disabled and most vulnerable.

This additional financing is now requested to expand the VKP horizontally into an additional 46 new blocks spread across 10 new districts, and four additional blocks in existing districts; and to make up for a shortfall of funds in the original project implementation area.

The project entered into a greater number of villages than originally planned (10 percent increase); and an increase in the number of identified target population (30 percent increase) strained the village allocation of resources.