‘Plan to create jobs for 1 crore families’

The Union minister of state for micro, small & medium enterprises — Giriraj Singh — who was in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, said that the focus of his ministry was to provide employment to one crore families by using the power of solar charkhas. The initiative, which began in Khanwan village of Nawada district in Bihar, has been taken up as a pilot project in Gondal and Rajkot in Gujarat. “The project is already giving results,” Singh told TOI. “The families in Khanwan, the adarsh village adopted by me, are earning Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 per month with their solar charkhas.”

Singh said that he was meeting khadi institutes to discuss the manufacture of solar charkhas and the setting up of programmes to train people to use the charkhas. Singh said that this would not only provide fixed income to families but would also generate employment. It is worth recalling that the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) had signed an MoU with two Gujarat-based khadi institutes to supply solar charkhas under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme. Gondal-based Udyog Bharti Trust and Rajkot-based Khadi Gram Udyog Sangh-Samanvay will provide solar charkhas to khadi institutions and artisans across India.

As for UP elections, Singh remained non-committal about the formation of government there. He said that the BJP would form the government in Goa and perform better than expected in Uttar Pradesh. “The people of country have supported the government when it came to demonetization and hence they will vote for good governance in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Source:TOI