Chhattisgarh’s rural youth will be gifted with Chief Minister’s Employment Generation Scheme (Mukhyamantri Rojgaar Srujan Karyakram) on the occasion of Raman Singh Government completing 5,000 days in office.
The project will be operated by the Chhattisgarh Khadi and Gramodyog Board. It will be launched on Independence Day. It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Raman Singh’s Government will be completing 5,000 days in office on August 14. The educated unemployed youth in the rural regions will be provided with loans to start village industry units, officials informed.
The Chief Minister accepted the proposal of Board Chairman Krishna Kumar Rai to implement the scheme.
Chhattisgarh Khadi and Gramodyog Board Managing Director Alok Katiyar said that is an important scheme of the State Government. The youth who have passed fifth standard will get loans up to Rs 1 lakh for self-employment and for youth who have passed eighth standard will be given a loan of Rs 3 lakh. The youth will have to invest only five per cent of investment rest of it will be invested by the local bank, he said.
Katiyar said that the youth would have to pay only 65 per cent of the loans in easy installments. Notably, the Chhattisgarh Government will be setting up an Apparel Design and Training Centre at Dharampura village of Bastar district, officials informed.
Notably, a total of 940 weavers had been benefitted under the Village Industries Department’s Integrated Handloom Development Programme in the State during 2016-17 , officials informed.
Village Industries Department officials informed that this scheme was started for development of handloom weavers of the State, under which financially weak weavers of rural areas are divided into groups of 20 and are provided weaving training of four months so as to make them more employable.
For making designs as per the market demands, weavers are provided two-months of skill improvement training. Weavers who do not have their own looms are provided Rs 25,000 for loom and Rs 3,000 for other necessary equipment. Moreover, Weavers cooperative societies are provided financial aid of Rs 20 lakh each for infrastructure development.
A total of 8,500 people were provided employment under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) in Chhattisgarh during the past eight years, officials stated.
According to Chhattisgarh Khadi and Village Industries Board, the PMEGP during the financial year 2015-16 as on December 2015 had provided fund of Rs 17.56 crore to 830 cottage industry units for commencing their works.
In turn, these units have provided employment to 948 persons. The PMEGP is a programme sponsored by Central Khadi and Village Industries Commission. Under this scheme, for setting up of cottage industry, projects costing upto Rs 25 lakh is sanctioned. For beneficiaries of general category margin money of Rs 25 per cent is provided by the Board, while for beneficiaries belonging to the female category, ST, SC and OBC class, 35 per cent margin money is provided as grant, officers said.
The loan availed from the bank has to be returned over a period of seven years, they said.
Mainly Poha Mill, mini rice mill, crusher plant, lack production, bamboo and cane production center, pottery business, pulses mill, flour mill, soap industry, incense sticks, candle industry, carpenter works, ironsmith, hosiery, production of utensils from brass-copper-brass, aluminum utensil, iron furniture production unit and others are financed under the programme.
As many as 119 cottage industry units were established in Chhattisgarh involving an estimated cost of Rs 1.78 crore under Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) during 2015-16, officials stated.
The project in Chhattisgarh is being run by Chhattisgarh Khadi and Gramodhyog Board.
Notably, Chhattisgarh had 7,586 people involved in manufacture of Khadi products as on March 31, 2015, officials stated. Out of the 7,586 people, there were 6,502 spinners and 1,084 weavers, according to the data released by the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), officials stated.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Khadi and Village Industries Board has been churning out trained youngsters through its various training programmes from rural areas with complete knowledge of availability of raw material, marketing and financial management to run their units , officials stated.
Beneficiaries of this scheme also have easy access to bank loans. The Board provided self-employment training to 73 youth from rural pockets of the State during 2014-15 under its Artisan Training Scheme. Nearly Rs 14.84 lakh has been spent on this training in the programme. Board officials informed that under this scheme, youngsters of rural areas are provided training in various trades for self-employment. The Chhattisgarh Government has also established an Apparel Training & Designing Centre each in Bilaspur, Raipur, Bhilai and Rajnandgaon, officials stated.
The Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) has also identified a land parcel measuring 30 hectares at Village Khapri, Tehsil Tilda in Raipur district for the development of a Textile Park. The proposed Textile Park at Tilda is aimed at providing one stop integrated facilities with manufacturing support, welfare and common infrastructure facilities to the prospective textile industries. The proposed Textile Park is envisaged to house world class eco system for textile industry, officials stated.
Testing laboratory (Including equipment), Design centre (Including equipment) , Training Centre, Trade & display centre , Conferencing and meeting facilities, Warehouse/ raw material depot , packaging unit Canteen and worker hostels and Recreation Centre.