The District Administration Kupwara and Tribal Research Institute (Department of Tribal Affairs J&K) today jointly organised a day-long awareness camp cum workshop on scholarship schemes/ NSP for scheduled Tribe students, at Town Hall Kupwara.
The awareness camp was attended by DDC Chairman, Irfan Sultan Panditpori; Deputy Commissioner Kupwara, Doifode Sagar Dattatray; DDC Members, Nodal Officer-Coordinator Tribal Affairs, Javed Ahmad Parray; CEO Kupwara, Abdul Hameed Fani; Principals of GDCs, Polytechnic College, ITIs, besides, teachers and students from tribal community.
Speaking on the occasion, the Deputy Commissioner said that the schemes of the Tribal Affairs Department are among the important deliverables which has been focussed on priority during the recently held Back to Village Programme (B2V4) in the district.
He said that a government scheme of any type needs to be saturated on ground to benefit the targeted population.He emphasized the need to work in convergence which will provide better results on ground.He also appealed the unemployed youth of the district especially those belonging to tribal community to come forward and enrol themselves under the ambitious Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) adding that the sponsoring departments and banks are now available in every area of the district to facilitate the unemployed youth in establishing self-employment generation units.
The Deputy Commissioner while congratulating the team from Tribal Affairs department for conducting the awareness camp in far flung Kupwara district, impressed upon all the concerned officers to ensure 100% benefits of scholarships from Central Government and UT Government reach to the students of tribal community on time.
While deliberating on the event, the Coordinator, Javed Ahmad Parray said that the aim of the programme is to create awareness about the special schemes and welfare initiatives launched for STs.He highlighted the achievements and plans of the department and informed that two cluster model villages shall be established in every district to focus on the developmental activities of the tribal areas.
He said under Jan Abhiyaan, 180 villages have received special funding, 120 percent enhancement of post matric scholarship schemes, 30 hostels have been established, 80 more are coming up, and initiatives taken for the STs in the UT.
He said for promotion of self-employment, 300 skilled courses, 200 Wandhan Kendra’s, craft and milk villages are established.Similarly, robotic, coding and modelling programmes, fellowships programmes in civil aviation, engineering, medical and other fields were also started for STs.
The coordinator informed that all Centrally Sponsored Scholarship Schemes have been mapped on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) through which ST students can easily apply.The technical team of Tribal Research Institute briefed the participants about eligibility criteria and guidelines of these Schemes and provided on-spot training of National Scholarship Portal to them.
Convener Reyaz Ahmad Shah gave a brief introduction of other schemes of the Department.CEO Kupwara also spoke on the occasion and briefed about the overall educational scenario of the district.