Akshay Azad
JAMMU, Dec 19: The much hyped job employment policy Udaan has so far proved a flip flop for Jammu and Kashmir as after nearly two years of its launching, only 368 candidates have been offered the job in private sector.
Sources informed Early Times that Udaan - a scheme piloted by the Home Ministry as part of the Centre's skill development initiative for Jammu and Kashmir- has been slow in delivering on the committed volumes.
"The Udaan scheme was launched on March 26, 2012, to enhance skills and employability of 40,000 to 57,000 graduates, post-graduates and three years engineering diploma holders from state over a period of five years but after lapse of around two years, only 368 candidates have been offered job in private sector", sources informed.
They further added the project was aimed at providing skills and enhance employability to 8000 youth from state every year, but contrary to claims only 547 have so far completed their training.
"If such will be the pace of scheme after two years, then in the five years tenure, not more than 1,000 candidates of state will be absorbed in private sector across country under the scheme", an official pleading anonymity said.
He further said that many engineers of state had refused to work outside the state due to meager salary paid by the Corporates to them. "Some engineers were asked to work on meager amount of Rs. 15,000 per month but in that meager amount, a person can hardly manage his daily requirements outside state, due to which many youth had turned down the offer of Corporates", he further said.
Pertinently, an expert group was constituted by the Prime Minister's Office under the chairmanship of Dr C Rangarajan, to formulate a job plan for Jammu and Kashmir. The group suggested a two pronged approach for employment generation. Firstly to identify sectoral initiatives for growth and employment generation and secondly increase employability of youth by improving skill sets.
Subsequently, it was approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on July 7, 2012. Several leading business groups had initially shown keen interest to participate in the Udaan skills training programme for graduates and post graduates of JK but later the policy showed abysmal performance. |
