Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law and Justice Abdul Haq Khan today called on Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Giriraj Singh to discuss support of the Ministry in training the youth of the state in various skills.The Minister was accompanied by Mission Director Bakshi Javid Hamayun and Additional Mission Director Kapil Sharma.Abdul Haq apprised the Union MoS about the initiatives taken by the state government with regard to the training being imparted to the youth in various skills and the subsequent placements by various project implementation agencies.The Minister further informed that JKSRLM has been entrusted with the responsibility of training and placing over 1.24 lakh youth with an allocation of Rs 1,601.51 crore for a period of three years under Himayat scheme.He said the department has already signed MoUs with atleast 7 PIAs while over 1,100 youth are already undergoing skill training in different trades within and outside state while process is going on to send more youth for different trainings.Abdul Haq sought the intervention of Ministry of MSME in training the youth in various skills and said the Ministry is having state-of-the-art tool rooms (Training Centres) to train and subsequently put up for placement trainees trained under these skill in tool rooms.He appealed the Minister to train JK youth under Himayat scheme so that the youth are able get skills in market-oriented trades so that they can either get jobs in such industries or are able to set up their own units with the help of government or other related initiatives.Giriraj Singh expressed satisfaction over the ongoing project and said the project will help the youth to get empowered by being able to earn their livelihood with dignity.The Union Minister directed for incorporation of the Minister’s proposal in the existing schemes of the Ministry. Various meetings were also scheduled with different HoDs of MSME Ministry to be held in the near future wherein the integration of DDU-GKY could be integrated in the existing schemes of MSME. The Minister assured to give special status to Jammu and Kashmir State in its layout of national schemes whenever launched in future and also to include option of launching ongoing existing schemes of the Ministry to JK.