Madhya Pradesh: Indore Is State's First 'Fully Industry-Rich District'

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The district has created history by becoming the first in the state with micro, small or medium industrial units established in all the panchayats.

This achievement has not only strengthened the industrial scenario of the district, but has also provided new employment opportunities to the youths at the local level.

On the initiative of Collector Asheesh Singh, an ambitious drive to establish industries in 100% gram panchayats of the district was started in April last year. The target of the drive was achieved in a short period of just one year.

Under the guidance of Collector Singh, 336 new micro, small and medium industries have been established in 160 panchayats of the district, where earlier there was no industry. Under the special drive during the last one year, a total investment of Rs 90 crore was made in these industries.

This has provided employment to more than 2000 youths at the local level.

This achievement has not only reduced local unemployment, but has also strengthened the rural economy. Collector Singh described this achievement as a major initiative towards ‘Atmanirbhar Gram’. He said that now there was no such panchayat left in the district where there was no industry.

A drive was run strategically to achieve target

As per the statistics, there are 334 panchayats in the district and 500 industries were already established in 174 panchayats. In the remaining 160 Panchayats, there were no industries of any kind.

In view of this, Collector Singh set a target of setting up micro, small and medium scale industries in all the 160 industry-less panchayats. To achieve this target, he started a special campaign in coordination with all the departments concerned in April last year.

This campaign was run throughout the year in coordination with the District Panchayat, District Trade and Industry Centre, Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), horticulture department and bank officials.

Continuous efforts were made using a micro action plan under the campaign. The target of the campaign was achieved within a period of one year.

Rs 60 cr loan distributed to set up units in villages

Under this campaign, loans worth about Rs 90 crore were distributed through various banks to provide employment to local youths.

As a result, 336 new industries based on milk products, food processing, agricultural equipment, coolers, readymade garments and spices industry were established in the panchayat areas. About 2000 local people have got jobs in these units.