Abdul Haq flags off first batch of trainees under Himayat scheme

161 youths will be trained in different skills at Jammu, Bangalore

SRINAGAR, JULY 17: Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj Law and Justice, Abdul Haq today flagged off the first batch of trainees for skill training and assured employment under Himayat Scheme from SKICC and Srinagar Airport.

The first batch comprised of 131 youths from different parts of the valley will be imparted trainings by Project Implementing Agencies (PIA’s) under different domains in Bangalore and Jammu. The PIAs will later consider placement of these skilled youth in their own companies.

In the first batch that was flagged off by the minister, 61 youths including 11 girls and 50 boys will be trained as Dialysis Technicians and Emergency Medical Technicians by PIA Apollo MedSkills Ltd at Bangalore. The Minister flagged off the batch at Sheik-ul-Alam International Airport Srinagar.

Another group of the batch comprising of 70 youths including 9 girls and 61 boys will be trained in Banking and Retail sector by Manpower Group Services India Ltd at Jammu. The Minister flagged of the batch from Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC). The government will bear all the financial expenses of the training including lodging, boarding, transport and the fees

Before flagging off both the groups, Minister interacted with the students and urged them to work hard during their training period so that the companies hire them for the jobs. He said a skilled youth can never be an unemployed because there is a huge demand of skilled youth in the corporate market in different sectors.

Abdul Haq said Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti launched the scheme earlier this year with an aim to train the  unemployed youth in different sectors so that they get employment at earliest. He said around three projects have been sanctioned by JKSRLM. He said 9751 candidates are to be covered in the present round of four project applications and that first installment has been released to the PIAs including Surya, Apollo and Manpower for the mobilization of candidates which is under progress.

The Minister, while addressing the students, shared the vision and mission of the Government for raising skilled manpower under various skill development programmes.

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 Yojna (DDU-GKY), Union Ministry of Rural Development with focus on sustainable employment for rural poor youth and JKSRLM has been entrusted with the job of training and placing over 1.24 lakh candidates with financial allocation of Rs. 1601.51 crore for a period of 3 years.

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 GOI would yield desired results within shortest period of time. He said the training of selected youth will be rolled out as early as possible by the end of June, 2017.

Commissioner Secretary RDD, Nirmal Sharma, Mission Director JKSRLM Javeed Ahmad Bakhsi, Additional Mission Director Ishfaq Ahmad were present on occasion.