Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 21 Aug: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today chaired a meeting of the Rural Development and Migration Prevention Commission at his official residence. During the meeting, detailed discussions were held on the status of migration from hill areas, measures to encourage reverse migration, expansion of self‑employment opportunities and provision of markets for local products.
The Commission apprised the CM of the organisation of Pravasi Panchayats, migration prevention and self‑employment awareness programmes across all the districts. The members also presented significant suggestions to enhance employment and self‑employment opportunities in the hill regions and to accelerate reverse migration.
The CM directed officials to prepare an effective action plan after seriously considering all the suggestions received during the meeting. He emphasised that all the departments must work in coordination through their respective schemes and activities to promote reverse migration in the hill areas to ensure that the benefits of departmental schemes reach the maximum number of people. Dhami also directed that the information about self‑employment and livelihood schemes should be made available to rural residents in a simple and effective manner, with special focus on simplifying procedures so that people are not compelled to make unnecessary visits to offices or banks, and ensuring that information reaches the village level.
He said Uttarakhand’s hill regions have immense potential for self‑employment and stressed that efforts must be made to link local resources, traditional knowledge and skills with livelihood opportunities so that youth can find employment within their own villages. He directed that local products be promoted on a wider scale, with attention to quality, branding and better market access.
Among those present at the meeting were Commission Vice Chairman SS Negi, members Anil Singh Shahi, Dinesh Rawat, Suresh Suyal, Ram Prakash Panyuli and Ranjana Rawat, Secretaries Dhiraj Garbyal, Dr Sridhar Babu Addanki, C Ravishankar and Ahmad Iqbal, Additional Secretaries Saurabh Gaharwar, Anuradha Pal and Santosh Badoni.
