Why in news:

• Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir recently undertook a comprehensive review of various self employment schemes operating in the region to review their progress and to ensure that they remain in sync with various long term and short term developmental objectives of the administration.

Key Highlights:

• The Lieutenant Governorhas set the target of two lakh cases for the UT administration for sanctioning and financing under self employment schemes, while reviewing the status of self employment schemes with Secretaries and senior bank officials, at Civil Secretariat.
• While chairing the meeting, the Sinha issued directions for the skill development department to utilize cutting edge technology to fulfill the real time needs of the Industry.
• The Lt Governor said that SC, ST, OBC and women entrepreneurs should be given special focus in the self-employment schemes.
• He further asked the DCs to ensure the saturation of social security schemes and basic amenities, especially in far-flung and border areas.
• The banks have ben directed to lay out uniform criteria for ensuring that no deserving candidate is denied the financial inclusion benefits due to trivial reasons.
• They have also been issued instructions to designate nodal officers who will ensure the timely disposal of loans to the beneficiaries of employment generation schemes.
• The Secretaries of concerned departments and Deputy Commissioners have been directed to saturate the coverage of various schemes including KCC, Mudra, Fasal Bima Yojana and others.
• Departmental coordination and involvement of all stakeholders including Banks, Cooperatives, Departments of Skill Development, and Labour and Employment has been increasingly emphasized as it is imperative for achieving the desired results of benefitting the common man of the UT.
• The Lt Governor reiterated his directions of identifying minimum five youth from each panchayat for skill development and hand holding, with dedicated focus on the border and remote areas of the UT.
• Expressing dismay over the low CD ratio of Banks, the Lt Governor issued strict directions to the heads of respective banks to increase their CD to more than the minimum benchmark of 40%.
• The Commissioner/Secretary, Planning, Development and Monitoring Department have been issued strict guidelines to regularly collect data from the banks and coordinate with them so as to ensure optimum available opportunities to the unemployed youth.
• Development of  a common dashboard for monitoring the process has also been envisaged ensuring that all the benefits of intended self employment schemes are extended to the grassroot level.