Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s grand plans for reviving the handicraft sector in the state seem to have fallen flat as the audit has revealed that 64 per cent of cooperative societies established for promoting crafts and providing employment to unemployed youth are defunct or under the process of liquidation.
As per the data, of the 1,789 societies, 1,143 are non-functional. The training centres run by the Department of Industries for unemployed have failed to provide proper skills-improvement courses across the state, thereby defeating the idea propounded by the coalition government to make youth productive and defeat the agenda of separatists to take away youth from the path of peace.
