J-K government eases employment policy

In an attempt to reach to unemployed of Kashmir, the J-K government today extended job sops and eased formalities under Sher-e-Kashmir Employment and Welfare Programme for Youth (SKEWPY).

In an attempt to reach to unemployed of Kashmir, the J-K government on Wednesday extended job sops and eased formalities under Sher-e-Kashmir Employment and Welfare Programme for Youth (SKEWPY).

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The government has decided to waive off the condition of land holding for giving Voluntary Service Allowance (VSA) to the unemployed youth of the state. The government has also reduced the age of eligible candidates from 28 to 26 years and the VSA will now be disbursed to the candidates in the age group of 26 to 37 years.

The decision was reached at a Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

"The government has also increased Rs 100 allowance for all categories and the VSA will now be given in the range of Rs 600 to Rs 1200, starting from matriculates to post- graduates and engineering and medical graduates," said Minister for Higher Education, Labour and Employment, Abdul Gani Malik while addressing a press conference in Srinagar.

He said with the waiving off these conditions as many as additional 32,000 unemployed youth will be brought under the ambit of scheme, raising the total number of eligible youth to 1.57 lakh in the state.

"All the deputy commissioners across the state have been asked to step up the implementation at block and tehsil levels so that more and more deserving unemployed educated youth are covered under the scheme at the earliest," said Malik.

The Minister said that an amount of Rs 122 crore has been worked out as financial implication per year for the scheme.

"Around Rs 76 crore have been already kept available with the District Employment and Counselling Centres in the state," he added.