Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Shrikant Suse chaired a meeting to finalize the MGNREGA Plan 2023-24 and reviewed the implementation of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in Leh district at the DC conference hall on May 18.

During the meeting, the deliberation focused on developing a road map for rural income generation with special emphasis on the promotion of Self-Help Groups (SHGS) in all the rural villages, with the aim to increase the income of each SHG member to 10,000/ month as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The meeting decided to promote SHGs to enhance the livelihood opportunities of rural womenfolk and to further establish Village Level Organisation and Community Level Federation to boost the platform for SHGs.

The concerned departments like Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Fisheries were directed to integrate its activities such as cultivation of mushrooms and vegetables with the rearing of poultry and fisheries as an avenue for SHGs to increase income generation in Rong Thiksey, Panamik, and Chuchot blocks.

Under tourism, it was decided to promote homestays in Changthang villages like Hanle, Korzok, etc to be run by Self-Help Groups as a new and unconventional plan under NRLM to increase employment and income opportunities. It also decided to promote e-cycling in Pangong to promote tourism.  

Similarly, the banks were directed to enroll SHGs under all the Social Security Schemes while NABARD was instructed to explore the feasibility and creation of Rural Haat in the district to provide a platform for marketing SHG products.  

The meeting was attended by the Additional District Development Commissioner, Leh; Chief Planning Officer, Leh; HoDS of all the line departments, All Block Development Officers; All the concerned officers and officials of NRLM, including State Programme Manager, District Programme Manager, District Mission Manager and Block Programme Managers and other concerned departmental officials.