JAMMU, 11 April 2021, (TON): India’s announcement of Rs 28,400 crore Industrial Development Scheme has been welcomed by the Jammu and Kashmir government which is aiming to generate employment opportunities to over 5 lakh youth. The government hopes to attract an investment of over Rs 20,000 crore through the industrial development scheme. However, Kashmiri leadership has highly objected dumping of non-Kashmiris in disputed State of Jammu and Kashmir which is awaiting plebiscite under the United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Sources quoting spokesperson of top Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani said in a statement, “They dubbed the new policy announced by New Delhi as an attempt of permanent occupation in the garb of jobs for youth.”

Meanwhile, thousands of non-Kashmiris have either acquired Kashmiri citizenship or have applied for the same in the light of controversial Citizen (Amendment) Act, 2019. The new policy announced by India has entitled to purchase State of Jammu and Kashmir property and make investments. The big industrialists have said that although they would try to accommodate Kashmiri youth but there will be no bar in employing Indian nationals from other States or abroad.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said Jammu and Kashmir has less unemployment rate than Delhi, Goa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. He said that the unemployment rate in J&K has gone down to 9% from 16.1 %. His remarks came in light of under-calculated and misleading figure recently released report of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) that unemployment rate has come down to 9 percent in J&K from 16.2 percent in September 2020. According to a report, the actual unemployment rate is 39.2 percent.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, while speaking at a day-long conference “Education to Entrepreneurship” at SKICC here, said that the government in consultation with all the stakeholders has developed the best Industrial scheme as compared to other regions of the country. “The unprecedented Rs 28,400 crore new industrial development scheme would further attract a huge investment of Rs 20,000-25,000 crore, besides providing employment avenues and opportunities to around 5 lakh youth.”