Govt gifts Rs 750 cr to State women

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has announced a gift to women in the State on the occasion of International Women's Day by releasing Rs 750 crore interest-free loan.

Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao said on Monday that to mark the International Women's Day, the government has given a 'great' gift to women by releasing interest-free loan. He specially thanked Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for releasing Rs 750 crore. While Rs 250 crore is for women in urban areas, Rs 500 crore is for rural women, the minister said.

Rao said the amount would benefit women's self-help groups in the State on a large scale. He said there are over 4.31 lakh small groups in all villages across the State. Over 46.10 lakh families are members of these groups.

The minister explained that while previous governments gave loans of Rs 21,978 crore during the last ten years to self-help groups, the Telangana government since the formation of the State, the government provided a loan of Rs 2,561.77 crore to the 3.85 lakh SHGs, benefitting 46.20 lakh members of SHGs. On an average, Rs 6.12 lakh bank loan was given to each group.