Mahendranagar, Oct 22 : A total of 78,000 applications in Sudurpaschim State were received for the Agriculture and Livestock Development Programme.

Under the programme, youths affected from COVID-19 and the returnee migrant workers would be provided with jobs in farming. The Province Government recently urged the aspiring youths to file job application in this sector.    

In all nine districts in the Province, almost 70,000 applications have been filed under livestock development and eight thousands under agriculture sector, according to Dr Hem Raj Awasthi, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperative of the Province.   

 
The ministry has made guidelines to manage and make the programme effective, he shared.

"The knowledge centre and expert centres have been given authority to select the applicants for farming. Seven to eight applications maybe selected," he said. Each of them would receive Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 under agriculture and Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000 under livestock, he said.    

The ministry has released Rs 150 million for this purpose, he said, adding that the amounts meant for the selected applicants would be released in two installments based on their business progress.  

  
More than 150,000 people in the Province returned home from jobs in neighbouring India due to the pandemic, according to available data.