Vikram Kapur, Principal Secretary, Energy Department, who is also the Project Director of Post-Tsunami Sustainable Livelihood Programmes (PTSLP), assisted by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), has inspected the programmes implemented in the coastal areas in the district. Mr. Kapur, Chairman and Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), who visited the coastal Kadaladi block on Tuesday to inspect the sites for establishing 500 MW solar power station, reviewed the PTSLP programmes with officials and representatives of programmes implementing agencies. Commending the establishment of Panchayat Level Federations (PLFs), Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and creating of Vulnerability Reduction Fund (VRF), Mr Kapur exhorted the members to make use of the loan and financial supports made available to them and develop sustainable livelihood. He said a total of 56 PLFs, comprising more than 1,400 women self help groups with total membership of 19,500 had been formed in the district. A total of 77 JLGs had also been formed and they were given a loan of Rs.1.5 crore to ensure sustainable livelihood to the members, he said. After distributing loans to Kannirajapuram and Mookaiyur PLFs and to the members of a JLG in Nariyapaiyur, Mr Kapur, accompanied by Collector S Natarajan, inspected karupatti’ (palm jaggery) making process at Naripaiyur. He asked the members to strengthen the PLFs and build corpus under VRF to sustain their livelihoods. Mr S Kumaresan, District implementing officer of PTSLP said fisher folk in the coastal areas were helped with infrastructure facilities for net mending and fish drying and farmers were encouraged to cultivate minor millets and traditional paddy varieties. A federation has been formed to help those engaged in selling jasmine saplings and flowers in Thangachimadam and Nochioorani, he said. To prevent them from middlemen, they were directly linked to traders, he said. It has been proposed to build 44 net mending halls at the total cost of Rs. 4.5 crore and 15 fish drying yards at the cost of Rs. 1 crore, he added.