The purpose of Public Services Guarantee Act is to launch economic units to make it time bound and hassle free. This is essentially to make it possible for the youth of the State to find opportunity of self employment on a moderate scale. We know that emphasis is on moderate self employment schemes because these do not entail huge investment in terms of land, labour, capital and organization. The limit of small size economic unit is gauged from the maximum of loan which the bank is advised to advance to the entrepreneurs without asking them to produce a guarantee and mortgage etc. as applies in cases above ten lakh rupees. What the Chief Minister wants should be focused on in the case of opening up more opportunities for self employment is that the bottlenecks at lower levels should be removed. He has announced that he would constitute a committee of high ranking officers of the level of secretaries to examine operational mechanisms, scale of financing, expansion, enhancing of age limit and lowering of qualifications for the youth intending to take advantage of Sher-i-Kashmir Employment and Welfare Programme for Youth (SKEWPY).
In a recently held meeting with the budding entrepreneurs in Jammu, the Chief Minister listened patiently to the experiences and impressions of the budding entrepreneurs who are willing to open small scale industrial and economic units to provide self-employment especially to the youth. He is right in saying that self-employment is the best way of reducing unemployment because there is saturation in the government in regard to employment. But he was quick to add that conditions need to be created for smooth execution of private entrepreneurship pursued either in the industrial or in economic sector. Past experience has shown that the youth who took full interest in self employment under different schemes have been able to make good progress. That is the happy outcome from the past experience.
In our state, small and medium size entrepreneurship is perhaps the right thing to focus on for providing employment to youth. We are sometime speaking about big industries and industrial houses establishing the units of their industries in the State. Theoretically speaking this is correct but when we consider the ground situation, the geography, climate, connectivity, production parameters and other circumstances, we are led to re-think the idea of establishing large scale industries in the State. More than finding employment for the youth is that need of creating self confidence among them to stand on their own legs and not be dependent on the Government munificence.
Jammu and Kashmir Bank has played crucial role in strengthening the economy of the State by undertaking various reformative measures in its functioning. The Chief Minister has pointed out that the Bank is expected to play decisive role in helping various schemes become a success. Fixation of ten lakh rupees as the limit up to which small scale loans would be provided without guarantee and without mortgage is in line with the practice of the Central Government. There is need of widening the sphere of cooperation between the small scale entrepreneurs and the branches of the leading bank of the State.
We believe that the Chief Minster has taken a timely step of addressing the budding entrepreneurs of the State in the course of an interaction organized by J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute at Jammu. This interaction has resulted in both sides knowing more about the impediments and obstacles in the way of accelerating entrepreneurship activities. It should augur well for a big boost in self employment programme for the youth of the State. It is hoped that apart from J&K Bank, other nationalized banks in the State will also re-assess their loan and lending schemes so as to make them compatible with what is the policy of the Government. The youth of the State, too, should try to understand and make best use of the opportunity provided by the government through various schemes and not depend on Government jobs which, however, are not forthcoming that easy.
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