Draft youth policy submitted to CM; Youth Budget next year

The R Balasubrahmanya-headed committee submitted the draft Youth Policy to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion the Chief Minister said, "the youth constituted four per cent of the country's population. We need to engage them in nation-building tasks. Youth need to be empowered through economic development. There is also a need to focus on their personality development. In this regard, Youth Budget would be formulated in the next budget."

The draft Youth Policy would be implemented after getting it approved by the state cabinet soon, Bommai added.

Sharing the highlights of the draft policy, Balasubrahmanya said, it is youth-centric with an objective of sustained development of the youth of the state.

While talking about Swamy Vivekananda Yuvashakthi Yojane, he said, "The state government also signed an MoU on the occasion with the State Bank of India, which is the Anchor Bank for Swamy Vivekananda Yuvashakthi Scheme, to extend loan services for the Youth Self Help Groups under the scheme for self-employment programmes."

"The scheme is being implemented with the objective of forming youth self-help groups in every village, impart vocational training to take up self-employment with seed money and market assistance," he added.

Youth Empowerment and Sports minister Narayan Gowda, Ministers V Somanna, Ashwathnarayan, Shivaram Hebbar and senior officials were present.

( With inputs from ANI )