Special scheme to help rural industrial units in TN launched

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday launched a Rs 300-crore special assistance scheme to help rural industrial units affected by the COVID-19 lockdown to start new such units and also generate employment opportunities. The scheme, which is part of the State Rural Transformation Project, would cover about 1.39 lakh beneficiaries of whom 31,952 would get a long-term loan of Rs 159.76 crore.

Palaniswamigave away the assistance to five beneficiaries to mark the commencement of the scheme. He commissioned an underground sewerage project in Palanichettipatti town panchayat of Theni district being implemented at a cost of Rs 34.67 crore.

He inaugurated several developmental works under the Municipal Administration and Water Supply department in 13 districts, including in Chennai, at an estimated cost of Rs 296.29 crore. On the agriculture front, the Chief Minister said he has sanctionedRs 54.46 lakh to protect the tapioca crop from pests on an area of 3,112 hectares in Namakkal, Salem, Erode and Kanyakumari districts.

On Thursday, he declared open sports facilities and stadia, established in Chengalpet, Kancheepuram and the Nilgiris districts at a cost of Rs 7.44 crore; 27 school buildings, structures for two panchayat union-level training centres for school teachers and one for the district-level centre, all built at a cost of about Rs 57.53 crore spread over 12 districts. He handed over a cheque for Rs 2 lakh to Abhinaya, a school student from Namakkal, for participating in an international science meet in the United States.