SAC approves Rural Employment Generation Prog

Srinagar: The State Administrative Council (SAC) which met here Tuesday under the chairmanship of Governor, N N Vohra approved the launch of a big-ticket Employment Generation program namely “J&K Rural Employment Generation Program (JKREGP)” with an annual outlay of Rs 50 Crore to start with.
The new scheme will target 1500 unemployed youth annually in the initial phase and will be implemented by J&K Khadi Village & Industries Board (KVIB) from the financial year 2018-19. The scheme is being launched with an objective to harness and channelize energy and entrepreneurial skills of rural unemployed youth towards productive enterprise in micro industrial sector and to create employment opportunities for them.
The Scheme shall be a Direct Benefit Transfer / Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme with term loan equivalent to 60% of the project cost to be provided by the financial institutions with the Government subsidy in the shape of Margin Money of 35% in rural areas/villages across all categories. The beneficiary shall be required to put his share, equivalent to 5% of the project cost up to Rs.25.00 lakh.
The Scheme covers around 18 activities under Agro& Food Processing Industry, 12 activities under Forest Based Industry, 7 activities under Handmade Paper/Fiber Products, 8 activities under Mineral Based Products, 8 activities under Polymer & Chemical Based Industry, 14 activities under Rural Engineering & Biotechnology, 27 activities under Service Industry and 17 activities under Textiles. The Scheme provides detailed guidelines relating to eligibility of persons for availing benefits.
Over the years several initiatives like UDAAN, HIMAYAT, Seed Capital Fund Scheme, Youth Start-up Loan Scheme and Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program (PMEGP) have been taken up to provide gainful employment and employability to youth of Jammu and Kashmir, where the unemployment rate is highest in the country followed by states like Kerala and Assam.
Of these PMEGP is the most sought program implemented by KVIB and District Industries Centres (DICs). The program though having shown good results has faced a limit of annual targets vis-à-vis the number of aspirants.