J&K govt to wind up Overseas Employment Corporation

Directing winding up of the Corporation, he said that “there is need to have some vibrant, energetic organization in place’’. This followed when minister was informed that since its inception in 2010, the cash starved Jammu and Kashmir had incurred an expenditure of over Rs 1.42 crore on running the Corporation without any significant contribution.

[related-post]

To make the state a preferred destination for recruitment by overseas employers, the then Omar Abdullah government had established Jammu and Kashmir State Overseas Employment Corporation Limited in 2010 with an authorized share capital of Rs 5 crore .

Pointing out that unemployment was among the largest challenges facing Jammu and Kashmir, Drabu called for formulation of a comprehensive employment policy and complete overhauling of the Employment Department. He fixed May 15 deadline for officials to bring up a “strategic paper’’ on restructuring Directorate of Employment and other allied departments.

Urging officials to have a new employment policy in place, he said “as the state is in post-conflict phase, there is need to have a new policy vis-à-vis current scenario and not the one formulated decades ago’’. The department should not look into providing jobs, but to bridge the gap of skill deficit, he insisted.

The finance minister asked to “develop schemes not to make employees work, but to make youth workable’’. “Our schemes should not be a process to provide work to district employment officer, but it is to be tailored for unemployed, unskilled, less educated and uneducated youth,’’ he added.

Commenting on the figure of 1.1 lakh youth registered as unemployed in the state, Drabu called for more detailed mapping as the number of unemployed has been more. He advised online registration system for voluntary registration of unemployed youth, saying “it is embarrassment to stand in a line for registration’’. “You make the system online and incentivise it,’’ he added.

WATCH INDIAN EXPRESS VIDEOS HERE