SRINAGAR: Aditya Gupta, Youth Wing President of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (JKPDP), on Friday accused the government of neglect and discrimination against unemployed youth awaiting subsidies under the Jammu and Kashmir Rural Employment Generation Programme (JKREGP).
Gupta said hundreds of youngsters from Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar and other districts had been waiting for five years to receive their subsidy component despite completing the mandatory lock-in period of the scheme. In contrast, he noted, beneficiaries of the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) had already received their dues without delay.
Calling the delay “deliberate injustice,” Gupta said the government had failed to empower youth, instead burdening them financially. “While the Prime Minister and the Lt Governor boast of schemes to promote self-reliance, the reality on the ground is starkly different,” he remarked.
He argued that bureaucratic apathy was defeating the core objective of JKREGP, which was meant to promote entrepreneurship and reduce unemployment. Questioning the differential treatment, he asked why JKREGP beneficiaries were being “treated as stepchildren” compared to those under PMEGP.
The PDP youth leader demanded immediate sanction and release of pending subsidies, warning that further delay would deepen the trust deficit between the administration and young people. “The time for excuses is over. These youngsters cannot be made to suffer any longer,” he said.
