From The Hindu Archives, April 1, 1976: Prosperity brigade and youth service corps to go

Madras, March 31: Both the Prosperity Brigade and the Youth Services corps started by the previous DMK regime in Tamil Nadu are to go.

While the Prosperity Brigade will be wound up immediately, the members of the YSC will be discharged on completion of four years of service. The Government found that the Brigade had ceased to be the non-political organisation that it purported to be, the contribution of YSC to improvement of rural economy was “not very satisfactory”.

At his weekly press conference today, the Governor, Mr. K.K. Shah, said the Brigade was brought into existence in February 1968 with the objective of developing local leadership and better utilisation of rural manpower. Over the past eight years, it had undertaken small works, which did not involve a high degree of technical skill, with the Government’s contribution ranging from 50 per cent for building works and 33-1/3% for other works.

“The organisation was expected to be non-political in character. But, in fact, it was not so. Even the enlistment of volunteers at village level had a political bias,” he said. The organisational set-up and co-ordination at various levels were “not good”.