PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun Chief minister has directed the State administration to pay special attention to connecting people with employment and self-employment opportunities with the help of flagship schemes of the State government. He gave the direction while chairing a review meeting of schemes associated with Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Tourism and Industry at the State secretariat on Thursday. He said that the people should be provided with complete information about these schemes in the ongoing ‘Jan Jan Ki Sarkar, Jan Jan Ke Dwar’ programme so they can benefit from them. The CM directed that special attention be paid to the skill development of youth and effective action be taken to provide them with maximum opportunities for self-employment. In the meeting the CM directed that the minutes of high-level meetings be mandatorily uploaded on the Unnati portal. Reviewing the high density apple farming scheme, the CM said that the scheme should be implemented effectively. On a stern note, he said that the dues of farmers are paid on time. The CM said that Uttarakhand possesses vast potential in the field of honey production. He said that beekeeping should be encouraged under the ‘Honey Mission and organic certification of honey should be ensured. In the meeting the CM was informed that 29 products from the State have received GI tags, 18 of which are related to agriculture. This year, 25 more products are being identified for GI tags. The officials said that under the State Millet Policy, implemented at a cost of Rs 134 crore, 24 development blocks covering 30,000 hectares were selected in the first phase and 44 development blocks covering 40,000 hectares will be selected in the second phase. In the first phase, more than 5,000 villages were covered, benefiting approximately 1.5 lakh farmers. A total of 5,386 metric tons of millet crops against a target of 5,000 metric tons have so far been purchased in the current financial year, the officers said. The CM was informed that under the Chief Minister’s Self-Employment scheme, a sum of Rs 202.72 crore has been disbursed to 33,620 beneficiaries in the last four years. Similarly under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Home Stay scheme of the Tourism department, 780 homestays have been established in four years. More than 1,000 people have got benefits under the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali scheme and under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, 17,450 people have received direct and indirect employment in the fisheries sector in the state. Cabinet ministers Satpal Maharaj and Ganesh Joshi, principal secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram, secretaries Nitesh Jha, Dilip Jawalkar, Vinay Shankar Pandey, SN Pandey, V Shanmugam, Dhiraj Garbyal and other senior officers attended the meeting.
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