Prime Minister appeals to youth to help build new Kashmir

ANANTNAG - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday asked the youth to join the government’s endeavour in building a new Kashmir and carve a new future for themselves, while promising all effort to sharpen their skills, especially in information technology and hospitality sectors.

“The central government will make all efforts to involve the youth of the state in constructive work,” the prime minister said at a function here, some 80 km from the state capital Srinagar, to inaugurate an 18-km railway link to Qazigund.

“I appeal to the youth of Kashmir to join in building a new Kashmir. I understand their frustration. But things are changing. I urge them to think constructively about how to build their futures.”

The prime minister said under the government’s skill development and employment scheme, the tourism ministry will train 300 youth of the state, while another 200 will be deployed as tourist escorts during the Amarnath and Vaishno Devi pilgrimages.

He also said the ministry of youth affairs will deploy around 8,000 youth in Jammu and Kashmir on a voluntary basis as part of a nation-wide programme to engage in public service such as cleaning of the picturesque Dal lake.

The prime minister said the information technology sector in the state can be developed as in other parts of the country and that his government will extend full support in this area.

“I am happy that more than 600 youth of the state trained under a central government project have been employed in the information technology sector recently,” he said, while announcing two central universities, one each in Jammu and Kashmir.