The meeting of high-level co-ordination committee to discuss the format of Youth Policy-2017 was chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at his official residence here on Wednesday.
The State Planning Commission while be incorporating the views and suggestions of youth besides studying the youth policies of other States had prepared the policy for Chhattisgarh.
The policy has proposed providing information on job opportunities for youth both in the private and public sector.
The policy has also emphasied on opening ‘open gyms’ at the Gram Panchayat levels besides the proposal of developing townships near new colleges and higher education institutes.
In the meeting, Chief Minister Raman Singh gave instructions to send a team of college professors and career counselors to conduct a counseling session for students of higher secondary schools. The draft also includes the suggestion to ensure availability of e-resources in higher education institutes for learning.
Facilities of career guidance and preparing of the profile database of youngsters participating in the competitive exams will also be provided in the educational institutes.
It has been proposed that public participation committees of colleges should be engaged to support economically weak students avail the higher education and also to educate them about modern methods of financial transactions such as online banking, credit card, debit card and e-wallet. It has also been suggested that strict action should be taken against the colleges running without recognition and affiliation.
In the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the officials to provide training in modern methods of agriculture, gardening, dairy and poultry to youth of Bastar and Surguja. Youth of Chhattisgarh will be provided training for recruitment in army, paramilitary forces and police forces. Importance of investors’ meet to promote employment opportunities in IT and other sectors was also underlined. Provision of preparing recognition system for recognising the skill acquired by working in the market/industry has also been made.
Suggestion to distribute solar lantern to people engaged in small business like running a temporary shop or ‘thela’ has also been given. Youth involved in agriculture works will be educated about agricultural techniques and marketing through internet and other modes of communication.
Creating awareness among youth to use roads responsibly and help the accident victims has also been included in the policy.
The policy insists on the skill development of differently-abled and third-gender people. Participation of youth should be ensured to prepare environment road map and establishing Vivekananda Yuva Protsahan Kendra in every gram panchayat has also been suggested.
In 2015-16, the Sports and Youth Welfare Department had identified various schemes including 100 per cent youth participation to make attractive provisions under Youth Budget.
The State Government had made Youth Budget for it’s various departments, for fiscal year 2015-16, of total worth Rs 6,151 crore. With that Chhattisgarh made the first ever youth budget of the country, officials claimed.
Sports and Youth Welfare Department Officials had informed that under Youth Budget, provision of Rs 1. 75 crore has been included for sportsmen training fund. This amount was to be utilised to provide sports training to 12500 youth in 2015-16.
Provision of Rs 4.84 crore for Rural Sports Tournament, and target was set to utilise this amount for promoting 9500 sports talents in rural areas. For women sports tournaments, Rs 1.35 crore was provisioned with the target to supporting 9500 sportspersons.
A fund of Rs 10 crores was provisioned under the Youth Budget for Mukhyamantri Yuva Bharat Darshan Yojana, conducted by State’s Sports and Youth Welfare Department.
Officials told that to encourage excellent sportspersons of the State, a provision of Rs 11.25 crore was made in the youth budget, with the target to benefit nearly 25,000.
To organise adventure and cultural programmes, and benefit nearly 18,000 youth, provision of nearly Rs 12 crore was included in the youth budget.
A sum of Rs 55 lakh has been provisioned in the youth budget for State Sports Awards. Moreover, provision of Rs 4.11 crore was included for establishing Sports Academy in the State.
In May this year, Apex industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) had also offered to be partnering in creating jobs within Chhattisgarh and also bring affordable technologies for the on-farming processing technologies for value addition in agriculture sector and to double income of farmers.
ASSOCHAM’s newly elected President Sandeep Jajodia along DS Rawat, Secretary General and UK Joshi, Director ASSOCHAM called on Chief Minister Raman Singh on Tuesday and agreed to adopt ‘skills centers’ in the State, an ASSOCHAM press release had informed.
The chamber would also be holding a national summit on ‘Investment opportunities in Chhattisgarh’ to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister in early July in New Delhi this year focussing on food processing, minor forestry, macro & small industries development, skilling, solar power and water management etc.
ASSOCHAM has suggested Government to ensure providing top quality crop seeds through credit-linked subsidy schemes, proper management of water resources, increasing the minimum support price (MSP) to protect interests of farmer community among others, promoting organic farming, extending agricultural loans at easy interest rates, creating infrastructure of warehouses to store agricultural produce, training farmers to use latest technologies.
Jajodia said, “Chhattisgarh is one of India’s few States with good and adequate power availability and it is a major core sector which has pioneered the State in thermal power generation”.
There is a need to create favorable investment environment to increase industrial production and create employment opportunities across the State.
Besides, the State Government needs to meet requirement of a congenial incentive policy and extend robust infrastructure support to lure domestic and foreign investments in potential priority industries, he said.
ASSOCHAM has also mentioned there is huge scope for setting up heavy, medium and small-scale mineral based industries in Chhattisgarh as the state is known for 28 different varieties of minerals including precious stones, diamonds, iron ore, coal, limestone, dolomite, tin ore, bauxite, gold and others, Jajodia said.
ASSOCHAM has also called for an urgent need to bolster infrastructure across the State. Besides, there is significant need to promote renewable energy sources especially solar power, offer tax rebates and subsidies to private sector for setting up power plants across the State and encourage use of energy saving appliances, the press release stated.
The other suggestions include improving affordable healthcare, effective implementation of education schemes, and developing of mineral-based, agro-based, manufacturing units, etc, it stated.
Since Chhattisgarh is endowed with huge mineral deposits, the State Government should take steps to promote such industries to enhance employment opportunities for State’s backward classes.