Speaker, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Kavinder Gupta today urged central government to help the State in addressing unemployment issues.The Speaker who is attending a three-day National Women’s Parliament, being organized by Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly with the theme of ‘Empowering Women — Strengthening Democracy’, met several leaders including Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh, N Chandra Babu Naidu, Union Minister Venkaihah Naidu and Spiritual leader Dalai Lama.The parliament began on Friday in the state capital region, Amaravati of Andhra Pradesh.After meeting the Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting, Venkaihah Naidu, the Speaker said he has urged the Union Minister to announce a special package for Jammu and Kashmir in order to address rising unemployment issues. He said JK has the highest unemployment rate in comparison to its four neighboring states, urging the Union Minister to announce a special package in tackling this issue. He said the number of registered unemployed youth has crossed over 6 lakh mark in the State.The Speaker also appealed the Union Minister to extend some Special package for the J&K to give a boost to the IT and urban development sectors which will help in infrastructure development.
“Addressing unemployment is the biggest concern for J&K Government and Union Government’s help in this regard will be a big relief to us,” he said.The Speaker also discussed the about the economic activities of the state along with a focus on tourism and agriculture sectors of the State. He further informed the leaders about the working and functioning of J&K Legislative Assembly and also about the recently concluded Budget session. The Speaker later sought the blessings of Dalai Lama and also invited him to visit the state and enlighten the people through his spiritual teachings.Lauding the Andhra Pradesh Government over organizing the National Women’s Parliament (NWP), the Speaker said that the vision of NWP is to enable and encourage social, political and economic empowerment of women in all strata of the society. “When you work with an objective to generate new ideas, concepts, theories and ideologies for women empowerment, you certainly get best results,’ he said.Pertinently several plenary sessions at the event with discussions on subjects like socio-political challenges in women empowerment, women’s status and decision—making, building own identity and vision for the future were held during the programme.