KL Desk
Jammu
Cabinet which met here with chief minister Omar Abdullah in chair has accorded sanction to the roll out of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), a poverty eradication programme through J&K State Rural Livelihood Society (SRLS.
The decision is believed to strengthen the prospects of rural employability in Jammu & Kashmir.
NRLM which is a universal social mobilization programme under which at least one member from each rural poor and vulnerable household, preferably women, will be brought within the net of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in a time bound manner.
The scheme which will facilitate creation of a platform and nurturing them with continuous capacity building support aims to reduce poverty in rural areas by building strong grass root institutions for the poor.
The scheme would engage rural population in gainful livelihood intervention and ensure appreciable improvement in their income on a sustainable basis.
The cost incurred by mission will be shared in the ratio of 75:25 between center and state government respectively.
For the current year, the union ministry of rural development have earmarked Rs 17 crore for the purpose and to start with four resource blocks in the state have been selected, two each in Kashmir and Jammu divisions. Director, Rural Sanitation J&K will be the Mission Director J&K SRLS.
Meanwhile, in significant development the union ministry shall be making a special proposal to the union cabinet for de-linking the allotment of funds to the state on the basis of poverty ratio, so as to ensure sufficient funding to cover the entire Jammu and Kashmir over a short period and initially enable to expand the pilot scheme to more blocks.
In another decision, the cabinet accorded sanction to the creation of 322 posts of dental assistants.
