Puducherry people need Self Reliance : LG

Puducherry, Nov 20: Instead of freebies, the biggest welfare scheme the people of Puducherry need is promotion and practice of self-reliance for their long term benefit, Lt.Governor Kiran Bedi said today. 

At a time when the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues were accusing Ms Bedi of not clearing files pertaining to schemes such as free rice, free sugar, free cloth, waiver of crop loan among others, the Lt Governor in her Whatsapp message here said that ‘self-reliance’means gradually shifting from dependence on basic minimums, to being self-skilled and healthy to generate for themselves to be self-reliant. It is the duty of the government of the day to provide and link them with easy access to assured health service, skill development centers, micro credit for starting small entrepreneurship, Ms Bedi said and added that this is abundantly available for rural and urban areas from NABARD and Government of India centrally sponsored schemes. These are currently being underutilized, she added. Having an elected Panchayat as mandated by the constitution and financially resourced is what Puducherry people need the most. Panchayat elections were not held here nearly for a decade ....People need to self-govern their villages and localities and this is what they ought to demand to their political masters. Unfortunately they are not being made aware of it, the LG said. This is what will empower them in the long run and make them self-reliant, Ms Bedi said, adding that had she known how to speak Tamil, she would have explained to them their rights directly. UNI