Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj Law and Justice, Abdul Haq Khan today flagged off the second batch of trainees for skill training and assured employment under Himayat Scheme from Panchayat Bhawan, Jammu.The second batch of 157 trainees including 111 boys and 31 girls from three districts of Jammu division viz. Doda, Kishtwar and Kathua and 15 youth from Kashmir Valley which will undergo skill training-domain in healthcare, retail banking, financial services and insurance at Apollo MedSkills at Bangalore, Surya Wires Pvt Ltd. at Raipur and Manpower Group Services India Pvt. Ltd at Jammu (Project Implementing Agencies). These agencies will later consider these trainees for placement in their own companies.Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Haq said Himayat is a skill development cum placement programme for unemployed youth in J&K under the umbrella of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gramin Koushalaya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Union Ministry of Rural Development with focus on sustainable employment for rural poor youth.He further said that these trainees are ambassadors of the state who take the culture, heritage and ethos of the state with them in other parts of the country. He assured them that adequate arrangements are being made for their comfortable stay in the other states, he added.
He said JKSRLM has been entrusted with the responsibility of training and placing over 1.24 lakh JK youth with an allocation of Rs 1,601.51 crore for a period of three years. The government will bear all the financial expenses of the training including lodging, boarding, transport and the fees of these trainees.Before flagging off both the groups, the Minister interacted with the trainees and urged them to work hard during their training period so that the companies consider them for the jobs. He said a skilled youth can never be unemployed because there is huge demand of skilled youth in the corporate market in different sectors.Abdul Haq asked them to dedicate their precious time in studies and asked them to interact with the local students of the training state to know about diverse cultures of the country that will help in bridging the gaps and help in removing the stereotypes.While addressing the students, the Minister shared the vision and mission of the Government for raising skilled manpower under various skill development programmes.
He said it is a challenge before the state government to train the youth of the state in various skills so that they are able to earn their livelihood. He hoped that the initiatives taken by the state government with the support of the Ministry of Rural Development would yield desired results within shortest period of time.Director Rural Development Department, Jammu Ravinder Kumar Bhat, Additional Mission Director, Jammu State Rural Livelihood Mission, Kapil Sharma, Additional Mission Director Kashmir, Ishfaq Ahmad, representatives of Project Implementing Agencies besides senior officials of the RDD and SRLM were also present on the occasion.Later, the Minister visited PIA Manpower Group Ltd. facility at Narwal and took stock of training and residential facilities being extended to trainees. He also visited classrooms, IT, retail laboratory and hostel facility for providing best facilities to the candidates and ensure their placement in the company.