"Grant to Coir Cluster/Societies/Agency" Component of the "Development of Coir" Scheme

What is the Grant to Coir Cluster/Societies/Agency component?

Grant to Coir Cluster/Societies/Agency is a component of the Development of Coir scheme run by the Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Puducherry, and implemented through the District Industries Centre (DIC) at Thattanchavady. Where most components of the coir scheme pay individual artisans. A stipend, a daily allowance, a travel reimbursement, this one funds the institution the artisans work through.

According to the Department of Industries and Commerce, Puducherry, the object is "to develop the coir industries and to encourage unemployed rural youth/artisan to involve in the manufacturing of coir products and its sales", and the grant is given for administrative and developmental activities of the cluster, society or agency, with a view to developing coir industries in the union territory.

The logic behind an institutional grant is worth stating plainly. A coir co-operative society in Karaikal or a coir cluster in the Puducherry region has running costs that no individual artisan can carry. A secretary's salary, an office, accounts and audit, raw material purchase co-ordination, and the work of finding buyers. Those costs do not disappear in a lean year, and a small society that cannot pay them stops functioning, which in turn strands the artisans who depend on it. A predictable Rs 2 lakh a year, committed for five years, is designed to keep that institutional layer alive so that the individual-level components of the scheme have somewhere to land.

The Development of Coir scheme has seven components in all: Training in Coir, Advanced or High Skilled Training in Coir, Exposure Tour for the Coir Artisans, Conducting of Exhibition, this Grant to Coir Cluster/Society/Agency, Grant of Margin Money for Availing Capital Loan, and the Entrepreneurship Development Programme.

Who is eligible for the coir cluster grant?

The department publishes two express eligibility conditions, and both must be satisfied.

The organisation can apply if:

• The cluster, society or agency is engaged in coir products, and the members of the organisation are coir artisans. This is a substantive test, not a formality. A body whose members are traders or investors rather than working artisans does not meet it.
• The cluster, society or agency is registered under the Co-operative Societies Act or any other societies Act. Registration under either route is acceptable, so a co-operative society, a society registered under a societies registration Act, or a registered producer body engaged in coir all fit.

In practice the organisation should also be operating in the Union Territory of Puducherry; Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam; since the scheme is a union territory programme funded from the Puducherry budget.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are an individual coir artisan. This is the single most common misunderstanding about this component. It is grant-in-aid to an organisation. An individual artisan should look instead at Training in Coir, which pays Rs 4,500 a month for six months, Advanced/High Skilled Training, which pays Rs 7,500 a month, the Exposure Tour, which pays Rs 150 a day, or the Conducting of Exhibition component, which pays Rs 150 per head per day with a free stall.
• Your group is unregistered. An informal collective of artisans, however genuine, does not qualify until it is registered under a co-operative or societies Act.
• Your members are not coir artisans. A general-purpose society that happens to trade in coir does not meet the membership test.
• You are a private coir company or partnership firm. A proprietary or private limited coir unit seeking capital is directed instead to the Grant of Margin Money component, which releases 25 per cent margin money restricted to Rs 25 lakh once a bank has sanctioned a loan, or to the Grant of Subsidy for Raw Materials Procurement, which pays 15 per cent of annual raw material procurement up to Rs 5 lakh per unit per year.
• You have not accounted for an earlier grant. Failure to furnish a utilisation certificate for a previous year's Rs 2 lakh will stop the next release.

How much is the grant and how is it paid?

The pattern of assistance published by the department is precise: a grant of Rs 2 lakh per year for five years to meet the administrative expenses and the expenses towards developmental activities of the society, cluster or agency.

• Annual amount: Rs 2,00,000
• Duration: 5 years
• Total over the full term: Rs 10,00,000
• Purpose: administrative expenses and developmental activities
• Paid to: the organisation's own bank account, not to individual members

The five-year commitment is the important feature. It lets a small coir society plan: hire a secretary, commit to an office lease, budget for audit — rather than living hand to mouth on ad hoc assistance. But the five years are not a single lump sanction. Each year's Rs 2 lakh is released as a separate government sanction, and the department satisfies itself on the previous year's spending before releasing the next instalment. A society that treats the first Rs 2 lakh casually will find the second year difficult.

Nothing in the published pattern permits distributing the grant as cash to members. It is an institutional running and development grant.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the coir cluster, society or agency grant

1. Confirm the organisation meets both conditions, that it is engaged in coir products with coir artisans as members, and that it is registered under the Co-operative Societies Act or another societies Act. If registration is missing, complete that first; nothing else can proceed without it.
2. Pass a managing committee resolution authorising the application, approving the proposed budget, and naming the office bearer who will sign for and receive the grant.
3. Prepare the budget in two clear heads; administrative expenses and expenses towards developmental activities: because those are the two heads the grant is sanctioned against.
4. Assemble the file: registration certificate, bye-laws, member list with artisan proof, latest audited accounts and balance sheet, the budget, the committee resolution, and the organisation's bank details.
5. Submit the application at the District Industries Centre, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605 009, to the Project Manager (Cottage Industries), who handles the coir components, and obtain a dated acknowledgement.
6. Respond to inspection. The department verifies the organisation's functioning, its coir activity and its membership before sanction. Keep records and the office accessible.
7. Receive the sanction and the first instalment into the organisation's account, and maintain a separate account head for the grant.
8. File the utilisation certificate and audited accounts at the end of each year to trigger the next year's Rs 2 lakh, up to the fifth year.

Organisations in the outlying regions should route the file through their regional office: the Functional Manager, Rural Industrial Estate, Kottucherry, Karaikal 609 609 on +91-4368-266467; the Assistant Director, Karaikal on +91-4368-265438; or the Technical Officer, Civil Station, Yanam 533 464 on +91-884-2321257. Mahe organisations approach the Technical Officer's office there.

How do I check the status of the grant?

No online tracking exists for this component. Follow up by:

1. Visiting the Cottage Industries section of the District Industries Centre with the acknowledgement.
2. Calling +91-413-2248391, or the General Manager's lines on +91-413-2248987 and +91-413-2249392.
3. Emailing dic.pon@nic.in from the organisation's official address.

Ask separately about two things; whether the proposal has been recommended, and whether the expenditure sanction has been issued and the amount drawn. Grant-in-aid files stall at the sanction and drawal stage more often than at the recommendation stage.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• The organisation is not registered. Register under a co-operative or societies Act. There is no discretion here; it is a stated condition.
• Members are not demonstrably coir artisans. Attach individual proof; society membership records, DIC coir training certificates, or unit certificates: rather than a bare list of names.
• Accounts not audited. An institutional grant cannot be released against unaudited accounts. Get the audit completed before applying.
• No utilisation certificate for the previous year. This is the commonest reason a second, third or fourth instalment stops. File the certificate promptly at year end.
• Budget not split into the sanctioned heads. Present administrative expenses and developmental activities separately, with line items. A single lump figure invites queries.
• Grant treated as distributable to members. Spending the grant on member payouts rather than the organisation's administration and development will fail scrutiny and jeopardise the remaining years.
• Application made after the year's funds are committed. Apply early in the financial year.

What are the key dates?

The Development of Coir scheme runs on the Government of Puducherry's financial year, 1 April to 31 March. Sanctions and releases are made within the year and against the budget provision for the year, so an application lodged in February has little chance of being funded before the year closes. No fixed last date is published for this component.

For a five-year grant, the more important dates are internal ones: complete the annual audit and file the utilisation certificate soon after 31 March each year, so that the next Rs 2 lakh can be sanctioned early in the new financial year rather than at its end.

How do I raise a grievance?

1. Approach the Project Manager (Cottage Industries), District Industries Centre, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605 009.
2. Escalate to the General Manager, District Industries Centre, on +91-413-2248987 or +91-413-2248391.
3. Escalate to the Director of Industries and Commerce, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605 009, on +91-413-2248476, +91-413-2248168 or +91-413-2248320.
4. The departmental head is the Secretary to Government (Industries and Commerce), Chief Secretariat, Puducherry 605 001, on +91-413-2336115.
5. Written grievances go to dic.pon@nic.in. The department's site carries a Feedback form and an RTI section, and RTI is the appropriate route where a society wants the reasons a grant was declined.

No fee is charged for applying, and no intermediary is authorised to collect money for processing a grant-in-aid file.