Tamil Nadu: Big push for roads, elderly citizens

CHENNAI: In a relief to elderly citizens in rural areas, the AIADMK government will set up 12,525 self-help groups for seniors in each village panchayat in the state. Apart from this, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami also announced that heavily battered roads in urban areas will soon be restored.
Making a suo motu announcement in the assembly, the chief minister said the government would extend 15,000 each to the self-help groups for elderly citizens."The government would offer 18.79 crore as resource fund to the groups," Palaniswami said. The government also fixed a credit assistance target of 14,000 crore to support women self-help groups in the next fiscal.
The chief minister announced allocation of 4,960 crore for the rural development and municipal administration departments, including construction of 10,000 check dams in rural areas.
He said damaged roads in corporations, including Chennai corporation, municipalities and town panchayats will be restored under urban road infrastructure scheme at 1,000 crore.
As part of strengthening the road infrastructure in rural areas, Palaniswami announced laying of 350km long concrete roads and 200km long paver blocks roads, construction of 1,200 small and minor bridges and a layer of broken stone aggregates for 1,150km. For schools in rural areas, he announced construction of compound walls for 650km. The chief minister also announced construction of 15,000 cow and goat sheds, apart from 1,000 wells to be dug up by the rural development department.
Basic infrastructure in the Adi Dravida habitations will be refurbished at a cost of 2,500 crore under MGNREGA scheme, central and state finance commissions and Adi Dravidar habitation development fund. The habitations will get to see drinking water supply, link roads, cement/paver block roads, street lights, drains and burial ground improvements.