Raipur (Chattisgarh) [India], October 2 (ANI): Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel today inaugurated the ambitious 'Mahatma Gandhi Rural Industrial Park Scheme' of the Chhattisgarh government and laid the foundation stone of 300 rural industrial parks in different districts of the state on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.

On the initiative, CM said, "Gauthans of the state are being developed as Rural Industrial Parks to provide employment and additional income sources to the poor rural families of the state. Various livelihood activities are being conducted here with the joint effort of the state government and the rural populace".

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Addressing the programme, Baghel added that the Rural Industrial Parks will play a vital role in realizing Mahatma Gandhi's dream of Gram Swaraj by creating self-reliant villages. "Gandhi ji has always stressed on the need to give respect for labour intensive village-based small scale industries which have the potential to improve the rural and urban economy as well. Our government is also committed to doing the same. The state government is making and operating schemes keeping the individual at the centre, the motive of the scheme is to improve an individual's financial condition which in turn affects the society in a positive way" he said.

The Chief Minister informed that 300 Rural Industrial Parks are being developed in the first phase. For this, one to three acres of land has been reserved.

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In the first phase, two Gauthans in each development block are being developed as Rural Industrial Parks. A provision of Rs 600 crore has been made for this scheme in the budget of the state government.

"Rs 1 crore each has been provided to all the approved rural industrial parks. With this amount, arrangements are being made for the training of youth. These parks will be equipped with electricity and water facilities, a working shed and an approach road. Units for the manufacture of vermicompost, poultry, goat rearing, agricultural and horticultural crops and processing of minor forest produce are also being set up in the Gauthans developed under the Suraji Gaon Yojana", the CM said.

Baghel further added that Flour-mill, pulse mills, and oil mills are being established and a large number of women and youth of self-help groups in rural areas are getting good means of income along with employment by engaging in such income-generating activities. Due to this their financial condition is getting better and better each day. Panchayat and Rural Development Department have been made the nodal department for this scheme.

Chief Minister Baghel initiated the inauguration ceremony of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Industrial Parks by paying floral tributes to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, the former Prime Minister Late Lal Bahadur Shastri and Chhattisgarh Mahtari. The Chief Minister also released the logo of the Rural Industrial Park. The guests present in the inauguration ceremony were welcomed by presenting kits of products prepared in Gauthans.

The Chief Minister further said that it is the state government's responsibility to provide a market to sell the products being manufactured in Gauthans. He further said that the manufacturing of bandanas is a very large industry and it should be included in rural industrial parks. Women of Baloda Bazar wish to manufacture bandanas through Rural Industrial parks. C-Marts have been established in every district to provide a platform to sell homegrown products made in the state at a fair price.

He further said that the producer now just has to produce according to the demand, from an economic point of view it is necessary that the product should be according to the demand. Considering the need and local resources, it has to be decided which items are to be produced in which Rural industrial parks.

The Chief Minister said that the youths of rural areas who want to start their own industries should also be provided co-working space in the Rural Industrial Park where state-of-the-art technology will be used for processing and value addition process of agricultural, horticultural and minor forest produce, the finished goods will be marketed at national and international level. For this, the State Planning Commission has signed an MoU with Tata Technologies.

Panchayat and Rural Development and Agriculture Minister Ravindra Choubey while addressing the program said, "Rural Industrial Park will take the development story of Chhattisgarh to new heights and here a continuous training program will be run for the youth in livelihood-oriented activities. The economic activities that started in the Gauthans have boosted the confidence of rural women".

He added that the rural women and youth are willing to start new activities like the Murrah industry, Poha industry, Dona-pattal manufacturing, Fabric manufacturing from Banana fibre, and Gunpowder production. 8600 Gauthans have been prepared in Chhattisgarh. In order to realize the vision of Bapu's Gram Suraj, there is a need to implement this scheme in the rest of the Gauthans in the coming time.

During the program, the Chief Minister discussed with the women and youth associated with the Rural Industrial Parks of Jarve in Janjgir-Champa district, Amaldih in Bemetara district, Saraghu Navgaon in Kanker district, Latuva in Balodabazar and the Gothan in Dongitarai village of Raigarh during the program. He also took information about the activities conducted there. Describing the Rural Industrial Park scheme as a good initiative of the state government, the women of the Self-Help Groups said that confidence has increased with this scheme and family income has increased substantially as well.

In the program organised through video conferencing at the Chief Minister's residence, Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ravindra Choubey, Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar, and Women and Child Development Minister Anila Bhediya, Parliamentary Secretaries Chandradev Prasad Rai and Vinod Sevan Lal Chandrakar, Rajya Gow Seva Ayog Chairman Mahant Rajeshree Ramsunder Das, State Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Shri Ram Gopal Agarwal, Advisor to Chief Minister Shri Pradeep Sharma, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation CEO Shri Vijay Mahajan and Environmentalist Ashok Khosla, Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, Additional Chief Secretary Subrata Sahu were also present. (ANI)

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