Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti has stressed on further extension of livelihood schemes among the rural women even as she asked the banks to extend adequate facilities in this regard.Chairing the first Governing Council meeting of the J&K Rural Livelihood Society (JKRLS) here today, the Chief Minister said rural economy of the State has a good scope of providing jobs to people and as such more and more interventions should be made to tap the same.Minister for Rural Development, Abdul Haq and Minister of State for Rural Development, Sunil Sharma were also present in the meeting.Mehbooba Mufti said the concept of Self Help Groups among rural women should be further pushed and more and more women should be included in it. She specifically asked the banking industry particularly J&K Bank and NABARD to further support such initiatives. She said market connectivity is a must for the success of these groups adding Government would actively think over providing market linkages to such SHGs.On the occasion, the Chief Minister approved launch of 100 milk collection centres in the State under Automatic Milk Collection System.
She was informed that by March, 2017 the number of such centres would be raised to 200. Under this chain milk in rural areas would be collected at selected spots and sold in the market on competitive basis on the lines of Gujarat cooperatives.The scheme, it may be recalled, was piloted in 2004 in the State by the then Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to replicate the Anand dairy concept in Jammu & Kashmir.The meeting was informed that J&K RLM oversees the implementation two flagship programmes of the State Government-UMEED and HIMAYAT-in Jammu & Kashmir. Aimed at financial inclusion of rural women and poverty alleviation, UMEED has been launched in 14 blocks of the state and 22 more blocks are being added up this year.The programme, the meeting was told, has generated a good social. capital which is in demand in other States also and so far 3500 rural women have been trained in different sectors of rural economy.Chief Secretary, B. R. Sharma, Financial Commissioner, Agriculture, Pramod Jain, Financial Commissioner, Planning, B. B. Vyas, Chairman, JK Bank, Parvez Ahmad, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Navin Choudhary, Commissioner Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Shailendra Kumar, Secretary Rural Development Kifayat Hussain Rizvi and other senior officers were present in the meeting.