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| Wednesday, 8 December 2004 |
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by Uditha Kumarasinghe The "Gemi Diriya" project, a special poverty alleviation drive introduced by the Government to uplift the socio-economic conditions of poor families living in rural villages countrywide will be officially launched by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at President's House today at 12.30 p.m. The World Bank has granted Rs. 500 million to the Samurdhi and Poverty Alleviation Ministry to implement the Gemi Diriya project to strengthen its attempts made to alleviate poverty among the country's low income groups particularly through the Samurdhi movement, a Ministry spokesman told the Daily News yesterday. He said the Rs. 500 million has been granted to implement the first phase of the Gemi Diriya project for a period of four years beginning this month. The first phase of the project will benefit nearly 700,000 low income families in 1,000 selected villages. The pilot project of Gemi Diriya was successfully implemented in Polonnaruwa based in three villages of Athumalpitiya, Nishankamalla Pura and Verana. Following the progress achieved by the pilot project, steps were then taken by the Ministry to implement the Gemi Diriya programme in another 30 selected villages in Polonnaruwa and Badulla districts, benefitting 9,708 low income families. Due to the success achieved in the project, the World Bank has granted Rs. 500 million to the Ministry to extend the project into a large number of backward rural villages. Under the Gemi Diriya project, 143 villages selected from Galle, Matara, Ratnapura, Polonnaruwa, Moneragala and Badulla will be developed within next year, he said. Under the Gemi Diriya programme, the Government will implement a series of programmes to improve living conditions of low income people in rural areas and redeem the poor from poverty, he said. He said Gemi Diriya, through the community driven development intends to uplift basic facilities of the community in these selected villages. Therefore, the program will mainly consist of three major components of income generation, savings and investment promotion. |
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