Chairman Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Wednesday said tough and frequent security restrictions in downtown Srinagar had pushed the educated youth of the area to disadvantage in competing for government jobs, encouraging them to set up more private business ventures.
Praising the calibre of downtown youth, the Mirwaiz said they were constantly establishing innovative commercial ventures for sustained livelihoods, overcoming difficulties placed in the way of their growth by police enquiries.
“All the previous regimes subjected the talented and educated youth of downtown to tough scrutiny procedures and inquiries making their chances of getting government jobs very bleak,” Mirwaiz said after inaugurating Appraoch, a readymade garment shop established by Suhail Hameed, a local youth.
“It’s a welcome step to see our boys standing up on their own and setting up business ventures. I wish Suhail a big success in his endeavour,” he said, adding downtown had a huge potential waiting to be explored.
The Mirwaiz said choosing to set up private ventures at a time when there is no pension and other benefits in government jobs was the way to go and needed more encouragement.
“We had a carpet industry but today, Turkey and China has taken it over. I urge our youth to build a quality base and not to go by numbers of the product at the ventures they launch,” he said.
“There is a huge market for copper industry but unfortunately our youth are not exploring that. Instead some are going to gulf countries and working there but not earning much. It’s time for our young boys to explore our traditional markets and try to come up with business ventures related to copper, handicrafts, pashmina, paper-machie etc.,” the cleric-politician said.
He encouraged the youth to also explore the huge online market for their products and tie up with sites like Amazon to get Kashmiri products out there.