The Apex Committee for Himayat scheme approved additional 20 Projects with a target of 14847 beneficiaries in over 25 trades for a period of 3 years to various Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) empanelled with Union Ministry of Rural Development for training and placement of youth of J&K.The Committee headed by Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, reviewed and discussed the credentials, prospects and experience of the new proposals before giving the approval.The other members of the Committee including Secretary, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Sheetal Nanda, Chief Operating Officer, DDUGKY (Himayat), Kapil Sharma, Director Planning, Industries and Commerce, Syed Shabir Shafi, Additional Secretary, Labour & Employment Department, Malikzada, representative of Finance Department, Mohammad Bashir, Representative of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kausahalya Yojana, MoRD, Kumar Manish and representative NIRD & PR Raghvinder were present on the occasion.Chairman, Apex Committee stressed on on-boarding more PIAs having effective industry tie-ups. He added that SOPs issued by MoHFW with respect to COVID-19 should be strictly followed.The Committee held threadbare discussion on the targets and trades proposed by the PIAs and set a revised, rational and achievable target for the agencies.Speaking on the occasion, Secretary RDD stated “Only those PIAs have been placed before the committee for consideration who have proper training and placement vision.”She also added that some of these recommended training agencies offer new and viable trades which will create new job opportunities for youth.Chief Operating Officer, Himayat, apprised the committee about Himayat programme and highlighted the achievement of the programme besides the challenges being faced in its implementation. He said as many as 17379 candidates have been trained out of which more than 7500 candidates have been placed and are currently working in prominent companies. It was also informed that COVID pandemic has posed a serious challenge in the implementation of the scheme as the classroom strength had to be reduced.
