As part of the Engaging Young India (EYI) programme, 20 youth selected by the panel of judges on the basis of their presentations on varied subjects were felicitated and presented cash awards in cheque during a programme held at Bijapur guest house in Dehradun on Sunday. In the absence of chief minister Harish Rawat, his son and the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Anand Rawat along with the CM’s media in charge Surendra Kumar presented the cheques to the selected youth in the presence of EYI head Asha Sharma.
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the PCC general secretary Anand Rawat opined that EYI was an important step taken towards engaging with the youth of the nation. He said that more work needs to be done to ascertain maximum benefit to the youth from the various schemes being implemented by the state government. He also welcomed the response reportedly elicited by the drives he had initiated against substance abuse and attempt to revive traditional games of Uttarakhand. He further averred that the efforts undertaken by the chief minister Harish Rawat for reverse-migration were also showing proactive effect.
Speaking on the occasion, Asha Sharma said that the various schemes being implemented by the state government had helped facilitate women empowerment and generated opportunities for self-employment. The chief minister has formed a corpus fund of Rs five crore for start-ups apart from which various other efforts were boosting self employment and development of the state. She exhorted the youth to participate in all the activities taking place in society.
It is pertinent to mention here that at an EYI programme held earlier on September 17, the chief minister impressed by presentations made by some of the youth had announced that they would be awarded. On Sunday, 13 of those youth were presented cheques of Rs 11,000 each and seven youth were presented cheques for Rs 15,000 each. These youth had made presentations of their planned start ups based on a range of issues and sectors including health, education, environment, automobile industry, construction, information technology sector and the medicinal and aromatic plants. Veer Singh from Gangi village in Tehri district had given a presentation on medicinal herbs. He said that Gangi is covered in snow for about six months in a year. Now, he is hopeful of building a livelihood for himself with the encouragement being provided, said the event organisers. A total of 20 youth were awarded on the occasion.