CM lays foundation stone for Rural Entrepreneurship Centre

From Our Staff Correspondent
Shillong, July 29: In a bid to promote rural entrepreneurship, the State government has conceived a scheme of Rural Entrepreneurship Centres to be set up in different blocks across the State. 
The first centre will be set up at ngapa under Songsak C&RD Block in East Garo Hills district for which Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma laid the foundation stone in the presence of Minister for School Literacy & Education Deborah C Marak on Friday.
The function for unveiling the foundation stone was organized by the Department of Commerce & Industries in the premises of St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Chidimit, which was also attended by Parliamentary Secretaries Cherak W Momin, Brigady Marak and Marthon J Sangma, East Garo Hills district Deputy Commissioner HB Marak and nokmas, among others. 
The main objective of this scheme is to provide farmers and rural entrepreneurs with necessary industrial and social infrastructure to attract entrepreneurs for starting up various small-scale industries. The centre will include facilities like industrial shed, common facility centre, labour shed, crèche for women entrepreneurs’ children, chowkidars’ quarters and toilets for workers, among others, with a total project cost of Rs 305.79 lakh.
In his address, the Chief Minister said the Rural Entrepreneurship Centre would be the first of its kind in the whole country, adding that the scheme was conceived to “empower people” and to make them capable of becoming successful entrepreneurs on a par with other entrepreneurs of the country. 
He also justified selection of ngapa for setting up the centre, saying that the farmers of the area are hardworking and have performed considerably better than others while taking up schemes provided by Agriculture and Horticulture departments. 
He also informed the gathering about the Incubation centres that would be set up across the State, which would provide handholding support to new entrepreneurs, adding that the potential entrepreneurs can identify what business would be suitable to take up, leveraging on the resources available around them and they would be trained accordingly, giving all necessary support so that they do not had to depend on middlemen for marketing their products.
Sangma lamented the fact that the State had moved very slow in terms of development in the past years and called upon the departments and officials concerned to expedite all development projects. 
However, indicating that the pace of development has picked up in the recent times, he highlighted a number of projects that are progressing fast including the construction of PMGSY roads and informed that the government had already approved 181 roads across the State to be funded by World Bank.

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com