Household income to increase:

Divi Neguma to benefit more families

By Dhaneshi YATAWARA

Eliminating poverty is the biggest challenge any government, would face amidst the heavily fluctuating prices of the world consumer market. In such a backdrop rather going on mass scale it sounds more effective to strengthen the smallest unit of the society, the family. The stronger this unit is the stronger the society would be.

In such a situation the Divi Neguma national development drive is a timely initiative to face the challenges of the modern world. Strengthening people to face high cost of living and gaining food security the Divi Neguma is expanding its wings to serve more people who have less resources to live.

This year the Government plans to develop 2.5 million homes as individual units under the Divi Neguma program.

Amidst its wide scope the Divi Neguma program has helped boost vegetable production, said Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa launching the new initiatives of the Divi Neguma program.

"It is important to keep the prices of the food low since people spend a significant part of their income on essential items. It is a part of lowering the inflation levels of the country," Minister Rajapaksa added.

"Through Divi Neguma we plan to strengthen the family unit economically and make them self sustainable", the Minister said. With a fresh hope of a new phase the Economic Development Ministry has declared March as a special planning month for the Divi Neguma program.

Officials of the Divi Neguma program will visit selected households of a Grama Niladhari Division and discuss with the family of its potentials, strengths and weaknesses.

Under the new phase households of 14,000 GN divisions will be covered where teams under the Grama Niladhari, Agriculture Research Assistant and the Samurdhi Officer will visit each family.

The team will comprise officers with expertise in agriculture, agrarian services, agriculture management, etc. The team will analyse the present state of the agricultural land of the family and proper changes to develop its productivity.

According to the ministry nearly 2.1 million families had joined the Divi Neguma program in 2011 and the government hopes to increase this to 2.5 million domestic units this year. Minister Rajapaksa said the total income earned by the tourism sector this year had exceeded US dollars one billion and the income earned by the foreign employment sector too had increased by 30 percent this year. "However, it is regrettable to note that a large amount of foreign exchange had been spent on importation of food items which could be grown locally.

The import of dried chillies cost nearly US dollars 50 million," he added.

An accelerated program was necessary under the Divi Neguma to save the money drained out on such imports and make it available to local farmers.

Agri, agrarian services, minor export crops and other units linked to the Divi Neguma project should make suitable proposals to make this a success.

In the recent developments Divi Neguma accelerated the 'one project for one village' program in the Hambantota district in 576 villages. At the same time four villages in the district will be developed under the Pura Neguma program.

The project proposals of Local Government members as well as Parliamentarians in the area will be selected for this purpose.

The government has taken measures to select one village among several developing villages and develop it to the level of a town under the Pura Neguma program.

In the Badulla district village development programs were launched recently at a cost of Rs. 567 million through the Economic Development Ministry.

In addition at a cost of Rs.340 million infrastructure of several villages will be developed. To upgrade nine villages in the district as towns the Ministry through Pura Neguma program has allocated funds.

These projects will be launched through the Local Government and Provincial Council Ministries. Accordingly, 874,000 people in 1,991 villages coming under 567 Grama Niladhari Divisions in the Badulla District's 15 Divisional Secretariat areas will benefit from these accelerated development programs.

The government will be spending Rs. 450 million to develop nine villages of the Ridimaliyedda, Meegahakiwula, Kandeketiya, Haldummulla, Uva Paranagama, Bandarawela, Lunugala, Haputale and Badulla Local Government bodies as towns by the Local Government and Provincial Council Ministry.

Under this program each village will get a main bus stand, building for weekly fairs, public playground, library, Pradeshiya Sabha building, public toilets, pavements, public cemetery and a drainage network among other facilities. The number of Samurdhi beneficiaries in the district is 63,268 which is 27 percent of the district's population.

In addition allocations were made to Ratnapura and Kegalle districts to develop the GN divisions of each of these districts.

The Government has allocated Rs. 1,603 million for the accelerated development of 575 Grama Niladhari Divisions of 17 Divisional Secretariat areas in the Ratnapura district.

This would be Rs.575 million for the 'One-Project-for-One-Village program', Rs. 628 million for the ministry's second project for community development and improving people's livelihoods and Rs. 400 million for the Town Development Project of the Local Government and Provincial Councils Ministries.

According to the ministry statistics this would benefit the district's 1,098,808 people including rural communities comprising 81 percent of the population and those in plantation sector comprising 10 percent.

These projects would also be a boon to Samurdhi beneficiaries who comprise 43 percent of the population and help reduce the unemployment rate which currently is at 5 percent.

The Government has decided to develop eight villages as towns in the district's Pradeshiya Sabha areas of Ayagama, Imbulpe, Kolonna, Embilipitiya, Pelmadulla, Balangoda, Kahawatta and Ratnapura under the Pura Neguma program at a total cost of Rs. 400 million. Under the program each village will get a bus stand, building for a weekly fair, public playground, library, Pradeshiya Sabha building, public toilets, pavements, public cemetery and a drainage system among other facilities. The local government areas to which the villages belong were decided at this meeting.

These projects would also boost district's main sources of income such as paddy, tea and rubber cultivations as well as small industries including gem and jewellery, handicraft and coir industries.

In Kegalle, benefiting 818,000 members of 211,000 families in 1,677 villages in the district development program will be implemented at a cost of Rs. 573 million. It will benefit comprising 11 secretariat divisions belonging to Dedigama, Galigamuwa, Aranayaka, Kegalle , Rabukkana, Ruwanwella, Deraniyagala, Mawanella and Yatiyantota electorates. The total amount the government allocated in 2011 for the Kegalle District was Rs. 8,201 million.

Of this amount Rs. 1,564 is from the Economic Development Ministry funds. Hitherto the poverty level percentage per household in the district was 16.6 percent, which dropped to 10.8 percent last year. The number of families receiving Samurdhi benefits is 75,554.

The projects will cover minor irrigation channels, drinking water, roads, extension of rural electricity, development of schools including provision of toilets, pre-schools, health and maternal clinics, development of children's playgrounds and other playgrounds, developing service centres for small industries and traditional industries, modernising paddy and fertiliser storage facilities, environmental protection and forest conservation.

The above development schemes will help in improving tourist locations in the district such as the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, Kithuglala and waterfalls including Esupini falls and archaeological sites such as the Dedimunda Devale. The Ministry hopes that this development will increase tourism's contribution to the district's gross domestic production by seven percent. Consequently it will also improve the living conditions of nearly thousand families engaged in the area's small industries - kitul treacle production and clay industry.

The government has relaxed regulation related to obtaining permits for Kitul tapping to boost the Kitul industry. The Economic Development Ministry has taken steps under the Divi Neguma Program to increase the Kitul trickle and Jaggery production and to develop the industry.

It is expected that a large number of people will join the industry due to the training program and equipment distributed by the Divi Neguma Program.

Funds have also been allocated to provide tool kits to those engaged in the industry through Divi Neguma with the assistance of Small Export Crops Development Ministry, the Traditional and Small Enterprises Development Ministry and the Industrial and Commerce Ministry. Sri Lanka has always been a country of villages.

Our village, while retaining its strengths and impressive features, can be developed as a micro centre of growth - with the vision that village has to be decent and comfortable place for people to live, work and engage in their cultural and communal activities. Nearly 55 percent of the regional contribution to the national economy is coming from regions out of the Western Province, according to the Economic Development Ministry.