Garhwal Post Bureau
Haridwar, 22 Jul: The ‘Kanwar Mela’ is currently ongoing in Haridwar district with a large number of devotees arriving. This is a golden opportunity for members of self-help groups to provide various types of services with the aim of increasing their livelihood.
Keeping this in mind, Chief Development Officer, Haridwar, Akanksha Konde has directed all the development blocks to set up stalls of self-help groups in and around the Kanwar Mela area so that women can increase their income by selling food items, handicrafts, etc.
Chief Development Officer Akanksha Konde has appointed Assistant Project Director-District Mission Manager, Haridwar, Nalinit Ghildiyal as the nodal officer to coordinate and obtain permission from various departments for selling the products prepared by self-help group members and cooperative members by setting up stalls and has asked to record the daily sales record.
At present, stalls related to water, tea, snacks, juice, food, fruits, bakery products, Kanwad, etc., have been set up at more than 60 places by self-help groups-cooperative members of 18 CLF at various places in the ‘Kanwad Mela’ area in the district. The record of daily sales in these is being maintained; till 21 July, daily sales of between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh have been recorded in these stalls. During the Kanwad Mela period so far, a total of about Rs 28 lakh worth of sales have been made through these stalls.
Currently, the Char Dham Yatra is also going on. Hence, there is a plan to continue running the stalls set up by self-help groups and cooperative members even further. With this they can get the opportunity to generate maximum income during the Char Dham Yatra season.
It is worth noting that the main objective of the ‘Lakhpati Didi’ scheme being run by the Government of India and the State Government is to increase the income of women of self-help groups to at least Rs 1 lakh by providing them opportunities for livelihood enhancement. For this, it is necessary that income generation opportunities are made available to them. During the Kanwar Mela, the women of self-help groups are very excited about the golden opportunity they are getting to generate income by selling their products.
