Pulwama, Oct 28: Union Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), BhanuPratap Singh Verma Friday visited PanchayatHalqaGangoo to attend the Jan AbhiyanSabha held under fourth phase of the Government’s unique Back to Village programme.
The official spokesperson said that the fourth phase of the Back to Village program (B2V4) began today across 190 Panchayats of district Pulwama during which a series of activities were carried out.
The Minister held an interaction with local people of PanchayatHalqaGangoo 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 BaseerulHaqChowadry, SSP GhulamJeelani and other district officers.
On the occasion, sarpanch of HalqaGangoo 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 the Back to Village programme. He said that programs like these have great impact as they report grassroot issues of the people of rural areas first hand. The aim of the 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 the government is committed to provide education to all for overall development of youth as education is a 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 NarendraModi 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 with MSME startups. He recalled that after COVID-19, the 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 a large number of accounts have been opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan-DhanYojana (PMJDY) with various banks, so that the financial benefits can get directly transferred to the beneficiaries via DBT mode. He urged for organising 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.
GOI committed towards providing congenial atmosphere for entrepreneurship, ease of doing business: Bhanu Pratap Singh
Union Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), BhanuPratap Singh Verma Friday visited Industrial Growth Centre Lassipora, Pulwama to review the Industrial scenario there.
He was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner, Pulwama, Baseer-ul-Haq Chaudhary and SSP PulwamaGhulamJeelani besides officers from other concerned departments.
The official spokesperson said that the MoS visited some new industrial units functioning in the estate and had an extensive round of infrastructure of manufacturing units.
He appreciated their business model and the state of the art technology engaged to add value to the local produce. He recognized and lauded their contribution toward self-reliance and employment generation.
He said Government of India (GOI) is committed towards providing a congenial atmosphere for entrepreneurship.
He added that the ease of doing business policy of the government has led to flourishing of Industry and Entrepreneurship. He said that IGC Lassipora is the growth engine of industry and is a developmental model for rest of Union Territory of J&K
The Minister also visited CA stores, Pencil slate manufacturing unit, Horticulture driven units like apple juice manufacturing plants etc. located in the estate.
During his visit to the pencil slate manufacturing unit, MoS was appraised by the authorities regarding the speciality of Pulwama in Pencil Slate manufacturing. He was informed that the district is the highest exporter of Pencil slates catering to almost 80 percent of the demand of the pencil manufacturing units in the country giving it the name of Pencil District. During the interaction with Industrialists at IGC, several demands were raised including upgradation of Infrastructure, establishment of SIDBI office, revival of sick units, amnesty for power tariffs, connectivity of road from IGC Lassipora to Sangam connecting IGC with National Highway 44.