BENGALURU: Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law and Justice Abdul Haq, on the directions of Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, on Saturday visited Bangaluru to get first hand appraisal of the facilities and training being provided to the JK youth under Himayat Scheme (DDU-GKY).
Pertinently, the Minister had on July 17 this year flagged off from Srinagar the first batch of 61 youth for employment-guaranteed skill training under Himayat Scheme.
These youth including 11 girls and 50 boys are being trained at Apollo MedSkills (One of the Project Implementing Agencies) at Bangaluru.
The Minister was accompanied by Commissioner Secretary Rural Development Nirmal Sharma, Mission Director State Rural Livelihood Mission, Javaid Bakshi, CEO Apollo MedSkills, Dr Srinivasan, Vice President Apollo MedSkills Sridhar, Director National Institute of RDD&PR Hyderabad, SS Raju, Mission Director Karnataka State Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society Sushama Godbole, officials of J&K and Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Mission besides officials of the Apollo MedSkills.
Abdul Haq said Himayat is a skill development cum placement programme for unemployed youth in J&K under the umbrella of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gramin Koushalaya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Union Ministry of Rural Development with focus on sustainable employment for rural poor youth.
While interacting with the Minister, the students expressed satisfaction over the facilities being provided to them and also put forth some grievances which were resolved on the spot. The Minister also visited classrooms and attended lecturers being delivered by the trainers to the students.
The trainers and the teaching staff at the Apollo MedSkills informed the minister that the batch from J&K state is one of the finest batches as the students are very talented, responsive and intelligent.
Later Abdul Haq along with Karnataka Minister for RDD HK Patil met students from J&K who are studying in various colleges of Karnataka. Speaking on the occasion, Patil said the students of Kashmir are guests of the Karnataka government and it will ensure their safety and security during their stay in the state. He said the students should not feel that they are away from the home as they are equal citizens of the nation and are a part of our family.
Patil assured the minister that he will act as the guardian and the care-taker of the Kashmiri students to ensure that they feel at home during their stay in Karnataka. He asked the students and the officials to directly contact him in case they need any assistance from the Karnataka government.