Dehradun: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reviewed various schemes related to agriculture, animal husbandry, tourism, and industry sectors at the Secretariat on Thursday. He instructed officials to pay special attention to connecting people with employment and self-employment opportunities through the government’s ambitious schemes. He directed that people should be provided with complete information about these schemes through the ‘Government for the People, at the People’s Doorstep’ campaign so that they can benefit from them.
The Chief Minister directed that special attention be given to the skill development of the youth and that effective measures be taken to provide them with maximum opportunities for self-employment. He said that all departments should pay special attention to ensuring that eligible people receive the timely and full benefits of the schemes. It should also be ensured that the allocated budget yields complete results.
The Chief Minister directed that the minutes of high-level meetings be mandatorily uploaded on the Unnati portal. Reviewing the high-density apple orchard scheme, he said that this ambitious scheme should be effectively implemented to achieve the set targets on time and that farmers should be provided with maximum incentives. It should also be ensured that payments related to farmers are made on time. To ensure that farmers get a better price for their produce, work should be expedited to promote kiwi production in the state.
The Chief Minister said that Uttarakhand has immense potential in the field of honey production. Considering this, more effective efforts should be made to promote honey production under the ‘Honey Mission’. Organic certification of honey should be ensured in the state. He said that teams of officers and experts should be sent to states where good work has been done in the field of horticulture and beekeeping to study their practices.
The meeting was informed that 29 products from the state have received GI tags, of which 18 are related to agriculture and agricultural welfare. This year, 25 more products will be identified for GI tagging. Under the State Millet Policy, implemented at a cost of Rs. 134 crore, finger millet, barnyard millet, amaranth, foxtail millet, and proso millet have been included. Under this policy, 24 development blocks covering an area of 30,000 hectares were selected in the first phase, and 44 development blocks covering an area of 40,000 hectares were selected in the second phase. In the first phase, more than 5,000 villages were covered, benefiting approximately 1.5 lakh farmers. 216 procurement centers have been opened for the purchase and sale of millet crops, and a revolving fund of Rs. 20 crore has been created under the Cooperative Department. In this financial year, against a target of 5,000 metric tons, 5,386 metric tons of millet crops have been procured so far.
The meeting was also informed that under the Chief Minister Self-Employment Scheme and Chief Minister Self-Employment Scheme 2.0, against a target of 32,000 beneficiaries over four years, 33,620 beneficiaries have been provided with Rs. 202.72 crore. A target of benefiting 9,000 people has been set for the coming year. Under the Tourism Department’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Home Stay Scheme, 780 home stays have been established over four years, for which Rs. 188.58 crore has been provided. Under the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Tourism Self-Employment Scheme, more than one thousand people have been benefited over four years, with a total funding of over Rs. 105 crore. In the state, under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, 17,450 people have received direct and indirect employment in the fisheries sector.
Cabinet Ministers Satpal Maharaj and Ganesh Joshi, Principal Secretary Dr. R. Meenakshi Sundaram, Secretaries Nitesh Jha, Dilip Jawalkar, Vinay Shankar Pandey, S.N. Pandey, V. Shanmugam, Dheeraj Garbyal, and other senior officials from the concerned departments were present at the meeting.
