| SKEWPY lost its steam even during NC govt's tenure | | In 7 years, just 10,000 beneficiaries across 22 districts of J&K ….! | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 11: It was billed by National Conference led coalition government as a landmark step to tackle unemployment problem in the state. Started with a bang in 2009, the then government's so called employment and welfare programme SKEWPY has proved to be just whimper with less than 10,000 beneficiaries counted in 7 years.
This is not a random figure, instead official statistics which show even as NC launched it as most ambitious and historic scheme in the name of Sher-i-Kashmir, it has not benefitted a significant number of youth, leave alone a sizable number as envisaged and projected by the NC led by Omar Abdullah. In over 6 years of commencement till date the beneficiaries across 22 districts of the state stand very low, mostly from towns.
Sher-i-Kashmir employment and welfare programme for youth was started with a political kick but it lost that buzz and excitement even during the tenure of NC government, even though latter wanted to use it a potent political weapon to impress youth in the elections, said the sources within the party while admitting NC could not encash anything out of it for many inherent flaws in the structure and composition of the scheme which was nothing but a mixture of some schemes that existed at that time, indeed with some new facets like VSA-Voluntary Service Allowance offering unemployed a monthly allowance that remained a major attraction initially.
Sources further said the government spent lavishly on advertisements, publicty material, offices staff so employed for the purpose but VSA could not make any visible dent nor any difference on the ground as there were many hiccups at the implementation level, notwithstanding the fact that NC wanted it reap the political benefits out of it as early as possible. It was rather a vague policy with no specifics in terms of fixing of responsibility for time period, targets at the district levels, spreading the reach in rural areas and many more things required for effective implementation of any scheme, said the sources adding that even during its own tenure, SKEWPY drew more criticism than any praise.
As of now, the official figures of unemployed youth stands at over 10 lakh in the state which has increased manifold in comparison to what it was in 2009- 2 lakh registered with employment exchanges at the district level. While the present government has wound up Overseas Employment Corporation, a white elephant that guzzled up 1.42 cr without employing even a single person, will it consider revamping or review of SKEWPY so that more beneficiaries could get into its fold….?At present it is not known what is the status of SKEWPY and programmes envisaged under it. |
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