Drop in poverty level

Nethali STRUYS

The poverty level has dropped from 24 percent to seven percent in the country due to Governmental strategies and projects carried out to uplift low income families, a Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority Director General Bandula Thilakasiri told Daily News Wednesday.

The Samurdhi Authority has implemented many countrywide programmes to reduce poverty. Diversified programmes reach individuals, families and groups, at village and urban level. Loan schemes are implemented for micro, enterprises initiated by individuals or groups of poor, in the community, he pointed out.

"Accordingly, with the help of the tourism industry, Agriculture Ministry, Rural Development Division, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department and many more State institutions, many programmes are being carried out", he said. Around 11,709 projects have been initiated upto August 2011 on livelihood develop with an investment of about Rs 271.6 million. An amount totaling Rs 32,000 million has been deposited in the accounts of 1042 Samurdhi banks. Around Rs 25,000 million has been offered as loans to the needy public. In the year 2000 there were 1.9 million Samurdhi beneficiaries and at present it is 1.5 million.

'Interest rates for loans too have been reduced effectively. It has reduced from 36 percent to eight percent to date,' he added.