ZPs asked to select beneficiaries for Chaitanya Yojane by December 10

Panchayats asked to select beneficiaries by December10

The process of launching Rajiv Gandhi Chaitanya Yojane, meant for training unemployed rural youth in self-employment and provide them financial assistance, began in Dakshina Kannada on Friday with the zilla panchayat instructing all 203 gram panchayats to receive applications and select beneficiaries before December 10.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced this scheme in the 2013-14 budget to create employment opportunities for two lakh unemployed rural youth in Karnataka. The government issued an order on October 25 for implementing the scheme.

The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department issued a circular to all zilla panchayats on November 18 to select beneficiaries. According to this circular, unemployed youth aged between 18 years and 35 years should submit their applications to gram panchayats.

The panchayats should select 40 youth from each panchayat by conducting gram sabhas. The applicants should have passed at least class 8. Women would be given preference.

The circular said that reservation rules should be applied while selecting the beneficiaries.

According to Y. Shivaramaiah, in-charge Project Director, responsible for implementing Rajiv Gandhi Chaitanya Yojane in the district, letters and e-mails were sent to the gram panchayats on Friday. He said that the beneficiaries selected would be trained by the professional training institutes identified by the government. They will also be trained through video conferencing.

The training would differ based on the activities the youth would like to take up. The zilla panchayat was yet to receive details, regarding who would train them, how long they would be trained and the activities identified for the training, from the government.

The official said that a loan of Rs. one lakh would be arranged for each beneficiary from banks. In that Rs. 10,000 would be borne by the government as subsidy.

The circular said that the objective of the scheme was to prevent migration of rural youth to urban areas in search of employment and prevent them from indulging in anti-social activities due to unemployment.