‘New options more lucrative than Govt job’
Avtar Bhat
SRINAGAR, Nov 5: Scoffing at the previous Governments for their failure in pursuing a visionary and everlasting policy for the rehabilitation of unemployed youth, Union Minister of State in PMO with independent charge of Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh today said the earlier Governments deliberately discouraged Start-Ups in Jammu & Kashmir, including in the Kashmir Valley. Click here to watch video
Addressing an interactive meet of Agricultural Start-Ups and farmers, organised jointly by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology (SKUAST) here today, the Union Minister said that the leaders who ruled J&K earlier did this deliberately as they wanted that the youth should remain perpetually dependent on salaried Government jobs and continue hanging around the political masters of the day. As a result, the region’s immense potential for entrepreneurship and self-livelihood remained unexplored, he added.
He alleged that earlier the leaders in public life made false promises with the people and youth of J&K while under the start ups started by Narendra Modi Government, the youth have been offered new options which can provide them more lucrative opportunities than Government jobs. Dr Jitendra Singh regretted that in past every election campaigning was based on Government jobs than Start-Ups.
He asked why the previous Governments did not concentrate on cultivation of Lavender when the Kashmir valley and some hilly reaches of Jammu region including Doda, Kishtwar and Reasi had a lot of potential for its cultivation and had previous Governments paid attention to it, this would have totally revolutionized the agriculture and its allied sectors in J&K.
Dr Jitendra Singh said this is for the first time in the last few years that under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, concerted and technology based effort has been made to promote the Agriculture Sector for young Start Ups in the region. Whereas, in the past, he said, the farmers and the agriculturists would largely depend upon the mood of climate and vagaries of nature for cultivation. In the last few years, new areas like, for example, Lavender cultivation have been explored at a large scale both in the Kashmir valley in the areas around Gulmarg etc. as well as in the Jammu region in districts Doda and Reasi.
He also accused the opposition of misleading the farmers while the Narendra Modi Government has announced many revolutionary schemes for boosting agriculture production in the country. Payment of Rs 6000 as financial assistance to small and marginal farmers by Modi Government irrespective of caste, creed and colour has generated new hopes among the farming community of the country and thousands of the farmers have been benefitted under this scheme in J&K, he added.
The Minister said that no Government in any country of the world can ensure 100% salaried Government jobs to every youth, but a responsible Government always plans to promote means of livelihood and this is precisely what the Modi Government is trying to seek. He said a sustained awareness campaign needs to be launched among the youth and their parents to educate them that there are much more lucrative emoluments available through these self-livelihood and new Start-Ups options and, therefore, they should not be led to waste their time and energy in protesting for Government salaried jobs.
Reiterating that the farming of today is no longer the farming of yesterday, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the farmer today is actually an agricultural technocart or an agricultural Start up who has the option of making handsome profits using the new technology and provisions introduced in the agricultural sector by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He said, the Government of India through CSIR is providing all the relevant financial and technical support for new modes of cultivation, multiple integrated farming and also hybrid farming which have the capacity to double farmers’ income by 2022, as envisaged by the Prime Minister.
On the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh also distributed Farming Kits to agriculturists drawn from all the 10 districts of Kashmir valley. An MoU of collaboration was also signed between CSIR and SKUAST.
Director General CSIR, Dr Shekhar Mande, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST, Professor J P Sharma and Director IIIM Dr Reddy also joined the Minister during the interactive session with the farmers.
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