In order to woo Kashmiri youths into the mainstream, the Centre today approved an employment package for Jammu and Kashmir through which at least one lakh jobs would be created in the next two years.The jobs would be distributed across the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh with fixed numbers for each. The jobs have been classified into three groups: self-employment (38.17 per cent), waged employment (45.18 per cent) and regular salaried employment (16.65 per cent).The state government would identify the number of perspective beneficiaries in each district. It would have to set up a support group to identify the beneficiaries, oversee its implementation, identify the role for scheduled banks and coordinate with them, and identify state schemes which could be incorporated in increasing the jobs.The progress of the package would be closely monitored first at department level; each month by the Home Secretary; quarterly by Cabinet Secretary and every six months by the PM, said a government statement.The financial requirement is estimated at Rs 2,988.23 crore of which budget support would be Rs 2,697.60 crore and bank credit of Rs 290.63 crore. ‘‘The amount of Rs 1,896 crore already stands sanctioned for the ongoing scheme in various sectors,’’ it said.The package was prepared by a taskforce headed by the Cabinet Secretary after Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee announced in Srinagar on April 19 that one lakh jobs would be created in the next two years.The taskforce set up nine core groups which were assigned to study in detail the perspective of growth and associated employment generation. It identified 1.5 lakh jobs but decided that since the gestation period in the creation of certain employment may be longer than expected, it would be safe to ensure potential employment of at least one lakh.
