PURA can revive rural economy, says Kalam

Empowerment of rural and underprivileged population is need of the hour

Providing Urban Amenties in Rural Areas (PURA) is a nucleated national programme, involving clusters of villages, that has the potential to boost the rural economy, said former president of India,Dr A P J Abdul Kalam here, on Saturday. 

“PURA envisages an integrated development plan with employment generation as the focus, driven by provision of habitat, healthcare, education, skill development, physical and electronic connectivity and marketing in an integrated way for a cluster of villages,” he said.

He was delivering the fifth golden jubilee lecture on ‘Livable planet earth’, at JSS College of Arts, Commerce and Science.

Quoting the example of Warana PURA in Maharashtra, which has a population of six lakh, he said that co-operative movements initiated in all sectors in the PURA, had transformed it into a poverty free complex aside from enriching the quality of life of its inhabitants.

The Centre had recognised PURA as a national mission. The Ministry of Rural Development had established 10 such PURAs across the country on a public-private-partnership model.
It would soon be extended to 10 other regions in the country, he said.

He reasoned that India with its 6,00,000 villages needed 7,000 PURAs.

Laying down guidelines for the success of the PURA concept, he said that renewable energies should drive the rural economy, so that the core competencies of rural sector could be harnessed for sustainable development of the economy as a whole.

“The urgent need of today’s world is the empowerment of the rural and underprivileged population of the world, which is about three billion people,” he said. Pointing out the need to regulate excessive consumption he said that the current economy of excess came at a huge cost on the environment.

Focus on waste management, recycling and efficient management of land and water resources were some of the basic requirements to achieve the goal of sustainable management, he said.

Earlier, he inaugurated the Golden Jubilee lecture hall at the college in the presence of Shivarathri Deshikendra seer, pontiff of Suttur mutt, Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas and Vice Chancellor of JSS University B Suresh.