CM to launch Swami Vivekananda Yuvashakti scheme on March 23

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will launch the Swami Vivekananda Yuvashakti Sangha, a self-employment scheme, on March 23. The CM on Sunday chaired a meeting of the senior officials and chief executive officers (CEOs) of zilla panchayats and reviewed the progress.

“Women’s self-help groups have been active for so many years. Now, a self-employment scheme has been formulated for the first time for youths, and the chief executive officers of the zilla panchayats must prioritise this. Their work does not end with the formation of joint liability groups and distribution of revolving funds, as they have to identify the groups, help them to avail loans, start the units, and guide them till the production starts,” the CM said.

He also instructed the counsellors appointed to select projects to arrange for training from experts in the respective areas in which the youths take up projects. “Only then will this scheme be successful”, he noted. The CM advised bankers to support the youths at the time of advancing loans for the Yuvashakti groups. Banks are free to give loans of more than Rs 5 lakh fixed by the government if the projects are profitable, he said.

There are 5,951 gram panchayats in the state and the Finance Department has issued orders on March 8, 2023, to constitute two joint privilege committees in each village under the Swami Vivekananda Yuvashakti scheme. As on March 18, 6,509 joint privilege committees have been constituted, and another 5,393 committees are to be constituted. Already, Rs 10,000 has been released to each of the 1,754 joint privilege committees. In total, Rs 1.75 crore has been released for the revolving fund.

Also, 100 model proposals are submitted to banks of which banks have given their assent to 551 projects and submitted for loan sanctioning. To avail of services of 9,300 Business Correspondents from banks, common service centres, State Bank of India, and NLM regarding the scheme linkage, account opening and loan activities, the incentive of Rs 2,000 from nationalised banks and Rs 4,000 from cooperative banks have been given.

Earlier, a proposal was submitted by the CM to the Union Finance Minister to bring joint privilege groups on lines of the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Scheme on February 2, 2023.

Youth Empowerment, Sports and Sericulture Minister C Narayana Gowda, Youth Empowerment and Sports Department Additional Chief Secretary Dr Shalini Rajneesh, CM’s Principal Secretary N Manjunatha Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) I S N Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary (RDPR) L K Atheeq, Skill Development Department Secretary Dr S Selvakumar and others were present in the meeting. (ANI)