STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Rural economy of the state has good scope of providing jobs to the unemployed people, said Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, while chairing the first Governing Council meeting of J&K Rural Livelihood Society (JKRLS) here on Wednesday.
The CM said that livelihood schemes should be further extended for providing benefit to rural women and directed the banks to extend adequate facilities in this regard. Rural economy of the state has a good scope of providing jobs to people and as such more and more interventions should be made to tap the same, she added.
The CM further said the concept of Self Help Groups (SHGs) among rural women should be pushed and more women should be included in it. She asked the banking industry particularly J&K Bank and NABARD to further support such initiatives.
She said market connectivity is a must for the success of these groups, adding that, the government would actively think over providing market linkages to such SHGs.
On the occasion, the CM also approved launch of 100 milk collection centres in the state under Automatic Milk Collection system. she was informed in the meeting that by March, 2017 the number of such centres would be raised to 200.
Under this chain, milk in rural areas would be collected at selected spots and sold in the market on competitive basis on the lines of Gujarat cooperatives.
The meeting was also informed that J&K RLM oversees the implementation two flagship programmes of the State Government -UMEED and HIMAYAT – in Jammu & Kashmir. Aimed at financial inclusion of rural women and poverty alleviation, UMEED has been launched in 14 blocks of the state and 22 more blocks are being added up this year.
Minister for Rural Development, Abdul Haq Khan and Minister of State for Rural Development, Sunil Sharma were also present in the meeting.
