SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 19, 2022: Government is committed to bring down the unemployment in J&K and the financial sector needs to put in a place an actionable mechanism to saturate the self-employment in J&K by the end of November 2022.

This was stated by the Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta while chairing the 8th Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committee meeting in Srinagar to review achievements of banks and financial institutions operating in Jammu and Kashmir for the half year ended September 2022.

He said banks now need to move towards sustainable, equitable and outcome based banking for sustained gains.

Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department, Prashant Goyal, MD& CEO, J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash, Administrative Secretaries of various Departments, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Dr. A. K. Sood and other senior functionaries of the Government, RBI, NABARD, Banks, line departments, insurance companies were also present on the occasion. Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, GoI Pankaj Sharma, District Development Commissioners of all districts of J&K and Lead District Managers joined the meeting virtually.

In his opening remarks, the Chief Secretary, Dr Mehta stated that employment generation is the major challenge of the Government and it is the collective responsibility of all stakeholders to address the issue. “Banks need to come forward and provide financial assistance to the unemployed youth for achieving the gainful employment.

We need to show empathy towards the unemployed youth in guiding them towards the path of prosperity and self-sufficiency through various credit facilities tailored in accordance to their entrepreneurial aspirations. We have to create an environment where youth have to think beyond Government jobs and strengthen avenues to self-employment,” he said.

Earlier in his welcome address MD & CEO J&K Bank (Convenor J&K UTLBC) Baldev Prakash assured J&K Government that banks operating in J&K will extend all possible support for implementing the programmes and schemes aimed at entrepreneurial development, employment generation and poverty alleviation in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

While appreciating banks for 100% coverage of the unbanked villages by opening of banking touch points under National Strategy for Financial Inclusion Programme, Dr Mehta impressed upon the banks to cover remaining one village under roadmap of opening banking outlets in villages having population over 5000 expeditiously.

He directed banks to expedite the roll out of brick and mortar branches in 10 identified villages with population over 3000.

The Chief Secretary reiterated his earlier direction to IT department, J&K Government to come up with a single portal for all employment generation schemes integrating all departments and banks in J&K. Financial Literacy in real terms, he said, was bringing more people under the ambit of banking.

Dr Mehta impressed upon the Banks to take advantage of the B2V4 programme commencing from October 27, 2022 for disseminating the information on various products/ schemes to the grass root level and identifying the prospective aspirants.