Nitish Kumar (File – ANI)
PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar on Monday transferred Rs 2,100 crore directly into the bank accounts of 21 lakh women beneficiaries under “Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana” (MMRY) to start businesses of their own choice.With this, the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government has, so far, transferred Rs 12,100 crore into the bank accounts of 1.21 crore women beneficiaries at the rate of Rs 10,000 to each beneficiary under the scheme.Launching the scheme on September 26 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had transferred Rs 7,500 crore to the bank accounts of 75 lakh women beneficiaries via videoconferencing from New Delhi in the presence of CM Nitish Kumar.Again on Oct 3, Nitish transferred through DBT the Rs 2,500 crore into the bank accounts of 25 lakh women beneficiaries.Notably, the state cabinet had on August 29 this year approved the scheme meant to empower women of the state.Speaking on the occasion, Nitish said that “The main objective of ‘Mukhya Mantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana’ is to give financial assistance to one woman of all the families the opportunity to start a business of her own choice. Under the scheme, initially Rs 10,000 will be given as financial assistance to start business. After evaluation of the performance of the business started by women, each beneficiary will be given additional financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh.”“I am confident that the implementation of the scheme will not only help strengthen the women’s condition but will also create better employment opportunities within the state. Women will become self-reliant. The scheme centred on promoting self-reliance and self-dependence will further boost economic growth of both the state and the country,” he added.Beneficiaries of the scheme, Lalita Singh, a resident of Banka and Sangeeta Devi, a resident of Muzaffarpur, shared their experiences of how they got benefits from various schemes launched by the state government including the MMRY.They narrated how they benefited from schemes like Mukhya Mantri Vridhjan Pension Yojana, the amount of which has been hiked to Rs 1100 from Rs 400 per month. Sangeeta Devi said how Nitish Kumar’s initiative helped her daughters get education. She said that her one daughter received Rs 25000 after passing intermediate while her other daughter got Rs 50,000 after completing her graduation degree. Stating that she has got Rs 10,000 as financial assistance to start her business and expressed confidence that she would also get additional financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh.
