Srinagar, Mar 10: The employment fair 2010 at Kashmir Haat here has evoked tremendous response, with from the unemployed Kashmiri youth.
 The five-day fair was inaugurated on Monday. “During last three days we have registered 132 unemployed youth and have distributed 370 brochures on poultry farming and 850 brochures on cattle rearing,” said Dr Muhammad Shafi Surma, mobile technical officer for Srinagar, department of animal husbandry.
  “We are in fact running short of brochures and have therefore placed orders for more,” he added.
 The employment fair is being organized by the district employment and counselling centre, Srinagar, for generating awareness among the educated unemployment youth regarding self-employment schemes and other employment opportunities.
 Assistant accounts officer, district employment and counselling centre, Nissar Ahmad Geelani, said overall nearly 3600 unemployed youth got themselves registered with various departments over the last three days.
  “And our department has so far registered 575 youth,” he said, adding that the department had already conducted the employment fair in Ganderbal and Kupwara this year and would soon conduct the fair in Bandipora as well.
 Muhammad Ashraf of Srinagar, who registered himself with the district employment and counselling centre on Wednesday, said that he was quite satisfied with his initial experience with the employment fair.
 “At least government has provided an opportunity to us. I completed my graduation three years back and since then I am without a job. But now I am hopeful to start my own unit,” Ashraf said.
 Chief agriculture officer, Srinagar, Shareef Ahmad, said they had so far registered 57 unemployed youth with the department, “and they are quite impressed with our technical guidance.”
 “We have been able to motivate them to avail benefits of our schemes. I believe, this practice would serve as a source of income for scores of unemployed youth,” Ahmad said.
  “We are here to generate awareness among the youth regarding two of our schemes on mushroom growing and bee-keeping. After we register them, we provide them technical know-how regarding how to start their own units,” added Ilyas Ahmad, junior agriculture assistant.
 Shareef said the self-employment schemes were the only way-out for tackling unemployment in the state. “Since there are numerous unemployed youth in the state, government can not provide jobs to all. So they have to stand on their own,” he said.
 Muhammad Maqbool, florist, department of floriculture, said they had registered 63 people so far. “We have witnessed a tremendous response; and we expect more of such response in next two days,” he said.      
 Overall 35 stalls have been installed by various government departments and banks, including district industries centre, Srinagar, sheep husbandry, animal husbandry, agriculture, rural development, horticulture, floriculture, sericulture, handicrafts, handlooms, fisheries, SC/ST/OBC development corporation, EDI, tourism, employment, and counselling centre Srinagar, cooperative PMGSY, ITI, ICDS, women’s polytechnic college, Kashmir government polytechnic college, Khadi village industries board, Khadi and village commission, women’s development corporation, social welfare, J&K Bank, Punjab National Bank, Ellaqaui Dehati Bank, Grameen Bank, consultant DIC, project officer DRDA and UDAAK, Srinagar.
 Dr Surma said they have taken contact numbers from the youth, “and after a week we shall go for counselling in collaboration with the director employment.” “We shall call these people and provide them training free of cost,” he said.  
 He said the department of animal husbandry offered various schemes with regard to dairy farming, poultry farming, egg production, feed processing unit, etc. “All of these areas have quite a good market; in fact more than other sectors,” he said.
 He added that young girls preferred mostly layer farming. “We provide them with poultry layer birds for egg production. If a girl would get only 200 birds from us, she can earn over Rs 10,000 a month while sitting at home,” he said.
 He, however, said most of the youth were landless, so they required land from the government to start their units.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST