SRINAGAR, AUGUST 17: Chief Secretary Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta said today that providing jobs to all of the job seekers in the UT is the next priority after giving basic facilities to all of its people.
Dr. Mehta made these remarks during a conference convened to assess the UT’s Employment Generation Schemes, which have been carried out jointly by several government agencies and financial organisations.
Principal Secretary of Agriculture; Principal Secretary of Industries & Commerce; Commissioner Secretary of RDD; Secretary of PD&MD; Secretary of Tribal Affairs; Mission Director of J&K Rural Livelihoods Mission; Director General of Planning; and other officers from the relevant departments were present at the meeting, led by the Commissioner Secretary of Labour& Employment.
The Chief Secretary said at the meeting that majority of the people in J&K now have access to roads, drinking water, and electricity, as well as other essential services like healthcare and education. He stressed the need of giving everyone who wants a job a chance to get one.
The Chief Secretary reaffirmed that all relevant departments should set these objectives and devise strategies to meet them within a specified time frame in order to fulfil the Lieutenant Governor’s (Shri Manoj Sinha) commitments to empowering women and young people.
He began by emphasising how important it is to collect accurate information on this group before developing successful policies. He advocated for the development of a database like ‘India Stack’ to advance the rights of women and young people.
He insisted that methods be developed to study and close the gap between plan goals and actual demand. He pointed out that those in the population who want to take any form of should have their needs met.
Dr. Mehta urged the relevant Departments to readjust their goals so that supply meets demand. He advocated for the development of employment strategies at the Panchayat level, which would better represent young people’s aspirations for the kind of activities in which they would want to participate in accordance with their skills and the possibilities now accessible to them.
At the meeting, Commissioner Secretary, Labour& Employment, RehanaBatul reported that so far this fiscal year, 19733 units have been constructed under various Self Employment Schemes executed by several Departments, providing employment for over 95,000 people. She said that during this time period, 614 people were hired via the efforts of 36 job fairs organised in various locales.
In addition, data showed that the Department had registered 25,1336 college-educated young people, including 85,540 women, for career counselling and other related support in finding gainful work. There were a total of 15807 counselling sessions conducted from January to July this year, with 44433 people attending. There were also 180 awareness camps organised, with 13809 people participating.
The conference was also informed that 17 DECCs (District Employment & Counselling Centres) were upgraded to become model career centres as part of the National Career Service Programme. In addition to providing counselling and other services to young people in the UT who are jobless, these Model Career Centres are tasked with connecting job searchers with all available work prospects.
