The government has constituted a district-level advisory committee for monitoring the progress of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) with involvement of members of Parliament from the district. The committee will have around 30 members who would provide overall guidance and suggestions for the implementation of the programme.
The committees would liaise and coordinate with KVIC, State Government and other agencies including Banks for effective mobilization of young entrepreneurs under PMEGP. It would also ensure that the scheme is implemented in accordance with its guidelines, said K H Muniyappa, minister for micro small and medium entreprises at a press conference held here today.
The committee will meet once in every quarter. KVIC which is the nodal agency for the scheme at the national level has been asked to take necessary action.
The Ministry has already issued instructions to KVIC that the units assisted under the scheme are actually set up within a time frame of 100 days”. Moreover, the Ministry has also in recent months expanded the District Level Task Force Committee (which is mandated to select the beneficiaries under the scheme) by inclusion of Members of social categories like SC/ST and women.
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The Government has released Rs 5,251.51 crore under the scheme since 2008-09 and more than 2.22 lakh projects have already been assisted, providing employment to an estimated 20.42 lakh persons. The allocation for the current year for 2013-14 is Rs 1,418.28 crore for existing 1.03 lakh projects creating employment for over 8 lakh persons. The Ministry has also directed KVIC and the implementing agencies to ensure that at least 100 projects per district are assisted under the scheme this year.
“For the country, as a whole, the outlay for XII Five Year Plan under PMEGP has been kept at Rs 8,060 crore which is 70 per cent higher than the allocation of XI Plan for the scheme for creating over 5 lakh enterprises creating employment for about 40 lakh persons”.
Further, the Minister added, collateral free loans are available for PMEGP projects costing upto Rs 25 lakh, as follows: (a) vide RBI circular dated 6 May 2010, Banks have been mandated not to accept collateral security in the case of loans upto Rs 10 lakh extended to units in the micro and small enterprises sector and (b) under the Credit Guarantee Scheme of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises. The scheme is designed to create productive employment through entrepreneurship (especially in the manufacturing sector) and arrest migration of workers and artisans to urban centres and other areas in search of employment.