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The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has just created record industrial growth and employment opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir by creating the highest number of jobs in comparison to all other states and union territories (UTs) in India under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).

According to the KVIC during the year 2021-22, it created a record 21,640 manufacturing and service units in Jammu and Kashmir, way ahead of bigger states like Uttar Pradesh (12,594 units), Madhya Pradesh (8,082 units), Tamil Nadu (5,972 units), Karnataka (5,877) and Gujarat (4,140 units). A new employment of 1.73 lakh in the union territory in 2021-22, under PMEGP alone, is also the highest across all states and UTs in India, the Khadi Commission said.

In 2021-22, KVIC had set a target of 3,360 PMEGP units in Jammu and Kashmir but buoyed by the Centre's major push to local manufacturing, it ended up establishing a whopping 21,640 units and thus exceeding the target by a massive 544 per cent with a total capital of Rs 2,101 crore while it disbursed a record margin money subsidy of Rs 467 crore along with Bank Credit flow of Rs 1,634 crore. The margin money subsidy disbursed by KVIC in Jammu and Kashmir is also the highest among all states/UTs in the country, it said.

Attributing this success of employment spree to the Prime Minister's vision for all-round development and self-sustainability of Jammu and Kashmir, the KVIC chairman, Vinai Kumar Saxena, said: "Such large-scale self-employment in Jammu and Kashmir is a contribution of KVIC towards making the state self-sustainable and bringing it at par with other states in terms of development.

"The record number of PMEGP units in Jammu and Kashmir is also a testimony of how people of the UT, after abrogation of Article 370, are participating in government schemes to strengthen the local economy and pave the way for overall development of the state."

The development of the union territory has been the focus area of the Modi government with a special thrust given on creation of local employment in the state since 2014-15. The efforts have fortified since 2019 when Jammu and Kashmir was made a union territory, Saxena added.

PMEGP was launched in the year 2008 and for the next six years till 2013-14, this scheme progressed at snail's pace in the UT. However, 2014-15 onwards, there has been a phenomenal growth under PMEGP in the state. Comparative data shows that KVIC had set up just 10,401 PMEGP units in the union territory in six years (2008-09 to 2013-14) whereas a massive 52,116 units were set up by KVIC in the last eight years (from 2014-15 to 2021-22).

Similarly, the total margin money subsidy disbursed by KVIC in the UT in six years (2008-09 to 2013-14) was a meagre Rs 145 crore, whereas it disbursed a whopping Rs 1,080 crore as Margin Money Subsidy in the last eight years (2014-15 to 2021-22).

Further, KVIC created a total of 85,719 employment under PMEGP in the first six years (2008-09 to 2013-14) whereas the last eight years have seen a massive 4.10 lakh employment in UT.

It is noteworthy that in 2021-22, a majority of the PMEGP units in Jammu and Kashmir have been set up in districts like Baramula, Badgam, Pulwama, Anantnag, Ganderbal, Kupwara, Bandipora and Doda that are largely prone to militancy.

As many as 16,807 (78 per cent) of the 21,640 PMEGP units in Jammu and Kashmir belong to the service sector such as units like beauty parlour, boutiques, embroidery, mobile/computer repair shops, food outlets which were followed by 1,933 units (9 per cent) under rural engineering and bio-technology like steel fabrication and steel furniture, artificial jewellery making, vermi-compost and bio-fertilisers units.