KHONSA, 16 Feb: The MSME Development & Facilitation Centre in Itanagar, in collaboration with the Tirap District Industries Centre, organised an awareness programme on the PM Vishwakarma scheme for targeted beneficiaries here on Friday.
The PM Vishwakarma is a central sector scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
The objective of the scheme is to provide holistic and end-to-end support to artisans and craftspeople through access to collateral free credit, skill training, modern tools, incentive for digital transactions, and market linkage support.
Attending the programme, Khonsa ADC Tana Bapu urged the bankers to “treat the beneficiaries in a friendly manner and guide them in availing the loans.”
Bapu added that, “even after selection of beneficiaries, the banks sometimes don’t grant them loans on time.”
He appealed to the local artisans to charge reasonable prices for their products, saying that “such local products are sold at very high prices, due to which ordinary people can’t buy them.”
Tirap ZPC Chathong Lowang said that the scheme would immensely help the educated unemployed youths as, “in this competitive world, the government won’t be able to provide jobs to all of them.”
Itanagar MSME Branch Assistant Director Arun Difoe delivered a detailed presentation on the scheme, including the registration process to avail the benefits of the scheme. He appealed to the gram panchayat leaders to create awareness about the schemes at the grassroots level.
Individuals aged 18 and above involved in artisanship are eligible to apply for assistance through the scheme, he said.
An official from the Khonsa SBI branch informed that “enrolment of beneficiaries will be done through common service centres with Aadhaar-based biometric authentication.”
“After successful verification and approval process, the applicants will be registered under the PM Viswakarma scheme,” the official said.
Textile & Handicrafts Assistant Director Chano Lowang briefed the participants on the importance of the training programme. (DIPRO)
