Pulwama:Union Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma today visited Panchayat Halqa Gangoo to attend the Jan Abhiyan Sabha held under fourth phase of the Government’s unique Back to Village programme.
The fourth phase of Back to Village program (B2V4) began today across 190 Panchayats of district Pulwama during which series of activities were carried out.
The Minister held an interaction with local people of Panchayat Halqa Gangoo at Govt Boys High School and listened to their issues in presence of visiting officer to the area, Controller Legal Metrology Majid Khalil, District Development Commissioner Baseer ul Haq Chowadry, SSP Ghulam Jeelani and other district officers.
On the occasion, sarpanch of Halqa Gangoo along with locals raised various demands including Construction of PHC, overhead water reservoir, upgradation of High School, Construction of playground and adequate drinking water facility etc.
Addressing the locals, the Minister impressed upon the people to avail benefits of various employment generation schemes such as JKREGP and PMEGP and other schemes like PM-KISAN, PMUY and PMAY.
He also briefed the local populace about the importance and benefits of Back to Village programme. He said that programs like these have great impact as they report grassroot issues of the people of rural area at first hand. The aim of B2V program is to get feedback from the common masses about the government sponsored schemes and to find out whether they are implemented in letter and spirit or not.
The Minister said that government is committed to provide education to all for overall development of youth as education is unique tool to provide skilled youth to the nation. He said that the government has established a Ministry for skill development to provide training of various trades to unemployed youth to earn their livelihood.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi always supports MSME so that people can get employment opportunities by starting their own small income generation units. He said that MSME contributed a major portion to the GDP of the nation during COVID-19 period, when people produced masks locally and earned their livelihood, and emphasized on coming up of MSME startups. He recalled that after COVID-19, Central Government provided special economic packages to industrial unit holders to start their work anew.
The Minister said that after 2019, great change has been seen at ground level in the overall development of J&K as projects like AIIMS, medical colleges, colleges and other developmental projects found their way in the UT of JK.
Speaking on the financial inclusion of the common people, he said that large number of accounts have been opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) with various banks, so that the financial benefits can get directly transferred to the beneficiaries via DBT mode. He urged for organising of Craft Melas to get a single window platform where local artisans can showcase their products.
He stressed upon officers to make people aware about the government sponsored schemes so that people can get benefited.
Later, he inspected various stalls installed by different departments and also interacted with the students of the Govt High School Gangoo.
All district officers, PRI members and a large number of people attended the function.
