Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday allocated funds for the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector and the members of the minority communities in the State.

For establishing Common Facility Centre for the Rice Mill Cluster at Alangulam in Tirunelveli district, the Chief Minister has allocated `7.78 crore under the Small Industries Cluster Development Programme. She has granted `78.91 lakh as State’s share and released `55.23 lakh in the first phase.

Last year, the Chief Minister had directed that Common Facility Centres should be set up at Engineering Cluster at Hosur at a cost of `6.90 crore, engineering cluster at Ranipet at an estimated amount of `9.27 crore and the Rice Mill Cluster at Keezhapavur in Tirunelveli district at a cost of `6.90 crore.

The government has already allocated two industrial units in the Porcelain industrial estate at Vriddhachalam. For the efficient functioning of these cluster, the Chief Minister has allocated `9.57 lakh.

Minorities’ Welfare

The Chief Minister has allocated `1 crore towards the share capital of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation.

With this, the share capital of Tamil Nadu government in this Corporation would go up to `8.50 crore. In 2012, she had allotted `3.50 crore as share capital.

An official release here said “When the share capital of the NMDFC goes up, more members of minority communities – Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Buddhists – can avail increased sums as loans for starting their own business through the Tamil Nadu Minorities Economic Development Corporation, since it has been functioning as the nodal agency of NMDFC”.

`1.32 Cr for TNGIS

The Chief Minister allocated `1.32 crore to implement the first phase of Tamil Nadu Geographical Information System (TNGIS) to ensure efficient delivery of government services.

The TNGIS, to be implemented through the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, would be in two stages – the first phase would be in headquartered Chennai and the second phase would be implemented in other districts. The TNGIS would be useful for government departments in planning and monitoring the services offered. Using this facility, the departments can download the maps.

Through the Geographical Information System a common spatial data infrastructure would be created and these databases can be used safely for the benefit of the people and ensure efficient administration.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Chennai / January 25th, 2014