New Delhi, Apr 21: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s brainchild and J&K government’s flagship inter-sectoral initiative ‘Mission Youth’, a specially designed programme for empowering youth made it to the highest civil services awards based on outstanding achievements over the last two years.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the coveted PM’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration, which was received by the Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, accompanied by CEO Mission Youth Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, on the occasion of Civil Services Day held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on Friday.
CEO Mission Youth, Shahid Choudhary earlier made the presentation before the Empowered Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba leading to selection of Mission Youth in a multi-staged evaluation and selection process over the last six months.
Mission Youth clinched the top position in over 600 nominations from across all the states and Union Territories in the Innovation (State) category, while Gujarat Government’s State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) bagged second position.
Mission Youth was selected for innovations leading to empowerment of youth in J&K, which included schemes in education, skilling, coaching, volunteerism, and effective use of technology for a very transparent and effective service delivery. With more than 61,000 youth benefitting under schemes and close to 5 lakh youth engaged over the last two years, Mission Youth earned the distinction of reaching out to maximum youth under any such initiative in the country.
The award carried Rs 20 lakh special cash reward for Mission Youth, citation, a scroll and a certificate of appreciation in favour of CEO Mission Youth Shahid Choudhary for placing in Performance Appraisal Dossier of the officer by the Department of Personnel and Trainings as the PMA scheme guidelines.
Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta described the occasion as momentous for J&K, especially the youth.
He complemented CEO Mission Youth Shahid Choudhary and his team for outstanding performance and contribution leading to such a rare feat in a short span of over the last two years.
He reiterated the commitment of the administration for taking every step to empower the youth and steps for a very meaningful engagement.
CEO Mission Youth Shahid Choudhary expressed great satisfaction over the very positive response to the initiatives by J&K youth and proactive measures by the departments and especially Deputy Commissioners in making the scheme a grand success at the ground level.
The Capacity Building Commission of India in collaboration with Harvard Business School has picked Mission Youth as a unique case study for inclusion in courses of top management and public policy schools.
Shahid Chaudhary thanked Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for leadership of Mission Youth and personal efforts to bring stakeholder companies and organisations to J&K.
He also thanked the Chief Secretary for complete administrative oversight and support, effective role played by the Administrative Secretaries, Deputy Commissioners, DECCs, and HoDs besides the OSDs and DD Mission Youth
The Citation of Honour underlines the special initiatives like Youth Portal, customised livelihood linked schemes like Mumkin and Tejaswini, education support like Parvaz, youth clubs and the effectiveness of District Level Task Force headed by DCs as many of the unique features of Mission Youth, leading to a sustainable and effective platform of youth empowerment in J&K.
Mission Youth awarded under the innovation (State) category for PM award has launched more than 15 schemes for youth, which include Mumkin and Tejaswini for women, Parvaz for graduates, UPSC coaching, Parvaz (XII), NEET JEE coaching, Rise Together, Tourist Village Scheme, Spurring Entrepreneurship, Protsahan, LG Super-75 (Girls and Boys), LG Rolling Trophy in sports, Know-India Love-India: Bharat Darshan, skill development courses scheme, youth innovation scheme, SAHAYETA: youth with disabilities, scheme for youth in distress: psycho-social counselling and Hausla among others.