THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Palakkad, Kozhikode and Kannur districts found place in the list of 75 districts selected by the Centre for ‘Azadi Se Antyodaya Tak’ campaign organised as part of 75th anniversary of Independence. Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh launched the campaign in New Delhi on Thursday.
The 90-day campaign aims to saturate the 75 districts with various beneficiary schemes of nine union ministries. The identified districts are aligned with the birthplace of 99 Freedom fighters. Palakkad is the birthplace of Captain Lakshmi Saighal and C Sankaran Nayar; Kozhikode is the birth place of K Kelappan and Kannur is the birth place of A K Gopalan.
Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka is also in the list. Also, the 75 districts are marginally lagging behind in development as per the monthly per capita indicators and Socio-Economic Caste Census data.
The campaign aims at taking up 17 schemes with direct assistance to beneficiaries on saturation mode.
Schemes under departments of social justice and Divyang Jan empowerment, women and child development, financial services, skill development and entrepreneurship, agriculture and farmers’ welfare, health and family welfare, animal husbandry and dairying, labour and employment and rural development will be implemented in these districts.
In a letter to chief secretaries, rural development department secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha said, “The campaign has the mammoth task of reaching out to the last beneficiary in rural areas.”