Minister for Cooperation S.T. Somashekhar has said that steps were being taken to form cooperative societies involving Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and extend financial assistance to them at subsidised interest rates.
He was addressing a gathering after distributing incentives to COVID-19 warriors, the ASHAs, at a programme jointly organised by KCC Bank, Dharwad Milk Union and Karnatak Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Saturday.
Mr. Somashekhar said that various cooperative banks of the State had donated to the tune of ₹52 crore to the Chief Minister’s COVID Relief Fund.
“There are 42,000 ASHAs who have served as COVID warriors risking their lives. We have collected funds from cooperative banks which are in profit and distributing ₹3,000 each to the warriors,” he said.
The Minister said that in a phased manner, funds would be collected from district-level cooperative banks to disburse assistance to the ASHAs. He said that as of now ‘Stree Shakti Sanghas’ were given assistance up to ₹5 lakh at subsidised interest rates and on the same lines it had been planned to form cooperative societies of ASHAs and extend assistance to them.
According to officials, so far 178 ASHAs have been given a total assistance of ₹5.34 lakh through various cooperative banks in Dharwad district and on Saturday 100 ASHAs were given an assistance of ₹3 lakh.
Minister for Large and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar, former Minister Basavaraj Horatti, MLA Prasad Abbayya, MLCs Pradeep Shettar and S.V. Sankanur, and Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Deepa M. were present.
