Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Tuesday announced that over 10,000 loan cases have been sanctioned for the union territory’s budding entrepreneurs under various programmes.
Sinha said his mantra for Jammu and Kashmir revolved around ‘four Ps’ — peace, progress, prosperity and people.
“The sanctioning of over 10,000 cases under B2V3 (back to village-3) self employment programme, economic package and ‘My Town-My Pride’ highlights the UT government’s commitment to empower the youth which is one of the foremost priorities of J&K government,” he said.
Sinha said 15,309 applications were received, out of which 10,828 have been sanctioned and an amount of Rs 100 cr has been disbursed to 6,734 applicants, identified under B2V3.
“We had taken up a target of covering at least 2 persons in each Panchayat who were in need of financial assistance for self employment,” he added.
He said the administration is committed to cover every single aspirant within the UT, who wishes to set up his/her own business.
“What distinguishes the effort this time is the fact that unlike in the past, where borrowers had to make several rounds of the bank to get a simple loan, the banks have been more than forthcoming towards helping the people,” he said.
The officers went to the villages under B2V3 and My Town-My Pride, and identified the aspirants, the LG said.
Sinha called upon the J&K Bank to not only extend financial assistance to these entrepreneurs but also provide hand-holding to them so that the youth who opt for self employment can set up sustainable businesses and flourish in their lives.
The LG also handed over a cheque of Rs 250 crore to J&K Bank as commencement of disbursement of 5 percent Interest Subvention and coverage of re-structured accounts following 2014 floods and 2016 agitation.
“This is only the beginning and as and when requests are received for further disbursement, we will continue to meet these requests in a timely manner,” he added.
Providing much needed relief to the business community, the LG also announced that from January 01 next year, GST shall be reimbursed timely and automatically without delays.
According to an official press release, reiterating government’s commitment for taking comprehensive measures for the revival of the business sector, the LG said a committee had been constituted under the chairmanship of KK Sharma (Advisor to LG) to suggest measures for improving competitiveness of local industry post-abrogation of toll tax at Lakhanpur.
“The committee was supposed to give its report within a month of announcement of economic package. I am happy to announce that the committee has given its report within the scheduled time and the government will soon commence the implementation of recommendations,” the LG said, adding these recommendations contain 20 key steps that will not only enable the industry to become competitive but also flourish in times to come and become competitive not only in this region but also at the national level.
Speaking on the economic package, the LG said had had 83 measures. “I had also said that the implementation of the package shall be personally monitored by me. I am happy to announce that nearly 50 percent of the recommendations have already been implemented,” he added.
“With all these innovative measures, we are progressing towards creating a better socio-economic ecosystem in J&K, and the implementation of the economic package shall be further intensified in times to come,” the LG said.
He said the government was strengthening the grass-roots democratic set up as a three-tier Panchayati Raj System is being implemented for the first time in J&K.
“My government is committed to peace and progress in J&K. As you have seen, we had announced the economic package about a month ago and we have been able to make progress on nearly 50 percent of the measures under the economic package. We mean what we say,” said the LG.
For empowerment of youth of J&K, Sinha said the administration is coming up with ‘YES J&K’ — a youth empowerment programme for youth engagement and employment.
“The intended programme will be an institutional mechanism for providing the necessary hand-holding and support to the youth to facilitate and nurture their capabilities,” he added.
On employment generation, the LG said that 24,000 posts have been identified in different departments, with 10,000 posts already advertised, across the UT for recruitment, which will be filled up soon.
“We will continue to march ahead. We will spare no efforts to ensure that the government of J&K comes up to the expectations of the people,” he said , adding “we stand committed to fast-tracking development in the Union Territory as per the dreams of our Hon’ble Prime Minister. We are committed to building a system based on values of transparency and accountability.”
Kewal Kumar Sharma, Advisor to the LG, BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Arun Kumar Mehta, Financial Commissioner, Finance Department; R K Chhibber J&K Bank Chairman & Managing Director; Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Power Development and Information departments; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the LG; Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, Commissioner/Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, CEO Mission Youth (YES J&K) were present on the occasion.
