Mysuru: The new District office of Dharmasthala  Rural Development Project (DRDP) at Vivekananda Circle here was inaugurated by Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr. Veerendra Heggade on Sept. 8.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Heggade disclosed that to empower rural people, DRDP had established 20,795 Self Help Groups (SHG) involving over 22 lakh people in the district.

He asked the members to introspect and reform themselves and set a benchmark for the masses. He further said that the members of the  SHGs had saved a sum, of Rs. 47 crore and deposited to Union Bank of India.

Continuing, Dr. Heggade disclosed that DRDP had provided an honoraria of Rs. 25 lakh to 428 families, Rs. 25.55 lakh to develop 33 temples, Rs.23 lakh to build toilets for 2,240 families, Rs. 77 lakh for milk dairy, Rs. 45 lakh for furniture at schools, Rs. 18.89 lakh scholarship for 330 students and Rs.20 lakh for solar heaters in the district.  

DRDP Regional Director A. Srihari, District Director V. Vijaykumar, Project Officer Chandrashekar, Corporation Bank DGM S.L. Ganapathy,  District Co-operative Union President H.V. Rajeev, Corporator Seema Prasad and others were present.