Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Saturday appealed to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to continue operation of district execution units so that the demands of the programme in blocks could be met. In a letter addressed to Union Minister Smriti Irani, the Chief Minister said the scheme ‘Mahila Samakhya’ was operated in district Pauri, Tehri, Uttarkashi and Nainital’ by the Central Government , and directions have now been given to stop it from March 31, 2015.
The Chief Minister also highlighted that it was a gender-based programme and had been running in Pauri district since year 1995. Rawat said the programme which was funded by the Centre was recently merged with ‘Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan’ scheme. And in a meeting held on April 26, 2014, at a national level, direction was given to close down as it had been completed up to 10 years. At the present, 60,000 women from 2875 villages were associated with this scheme in the State.
The CM further mentioned that about 300 workers would be unemployed by closing the program and their livelihood would also be affected as they had crossed the age of Government jobs. Rawat CM said considering the status of women in these blocks, the program still needs to be run. The Chief Minister has requested the Central Minster to continue the program unchanged.