A CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma launched the "Chief Minister's Mobilisation Support for Producers" programme in Tura on Wednesday in the presence of North Tura MLA, Thomas A Sangma, Williamnagar MLA, Marcuise Marak, deputy commissioners of West and East Garo Hills Districts and officials.
With a vision to identify, train and form Producer Groups, Service Providers and Collective Marketing Centers across Meghalaya, the objectives of the programme are to improve production, productivity and market access. The formation of the groups will enable the Government to achieve program objectives by ensuring the timely availability of adequate and quality inputs, access to Credit, improve marketing infrastructure, extension services and better transportation.
Under the Meghalaya Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project (Megha-LAMP), 1,260 Producer Groups are being supported while under the PRIME initiative, 936 Producer Groups are being supported. In the coming months, Rs. 9.4 crore will be disbursed to the groups under Megha-LAMP and Rs. 6.1 crore will be disbursed to the groups under PRIME.
Each member of the Producer Groups gets a mobilization fund of Rs. 5,000; and each Service Provider gets a mobilization fund of Rs. 50,000. While each of the Collective marketing Centers get a ZERO interest loan of Rs. 7,00,000.
In the launch event at Tura, almost Rs 3.5 crore was distributed to award 90 Producer Groups, 21 Service Providers, and 38 Collective Marketing Centers.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said, "Apart from the many development projects that are important for the State and the people, we were very clear that we want to make an improvement in every individual's life. We want to take steps, small steps to transform the lives of the people at the grassroots level. We realized that there are many gaps in the system- entrepreneurship, farmers, artistes, sports, art, students, youth, etc; and there are small things we can do that can change the lives of our people in every sector."
He added, "We started looking into these gaps. We realized that entrepreneurship is a base and an area that will touch every aspect of life. We started by promoting and recognizing the entrepreneurs. I started my journey as an entrepreneur and I know the challenges the entrepreneurs face firsthand. We recognized entrepreneurs by starting the CM's Entrepreneurship Recognition Award, we realized that they need guidance so we started giving them different kinds of training and even started the PRIME Hubs".
In the event, the Chief Minister also announced that the Meghalaya Government will spend Rs. 200 crore over the next two years under the programme to enable farmers and producer groups to level up and leverage their enterprises.