PM Vishwakarma Yojana

• 23 Oct 2023

Why In News?

According to the information received from the media on October 22, 2023, four districts of Kumaon division of Uttarakhand, Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat and Pithoragarh have been selected in the first phase for 'Pradhanmantri Vishwakarma Yojana'.

Key Points:

• In this regard, Director General Industries Rohit Meena has issued a letter to the District Magistrates of the four districts and instructed the heads of gram panchayats to onboard the portal of the scheme.
• In the first phase of this scheme, gram panchayat heads in four hilly districts of the state - Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat and Pithoragarh will be onboard on the PM Vishwakarma portal through common service centers (CSCs).
• Of these four districts of Kumaon division, Almora has 1,160, Bageshwar has 407, Champawat has 313 and Pithoragarh has 686 gram panchayats.
• Carpenters, boat-makers, armorer, blacksmiths, repairers, hammer and toolkit makers, sculptors, stone breakers, goldsmiths, potters, cobblers, masons, basket and broom makers, dolls and toy makers, barbers, garland makers, washermen, tailors, fishing net makers etc. will be registered on the PM Vishwakarma portal.
• It may be noted that the PM Vishwakarma Yojana was inaugurated on September 17. Under the scheme, the government will give cheap loans to the artisans to start work. The scheme provides for first training and stipend to the beneficiaries of 18 traditional works.
• The verification of online application forms will be done in three phases. In the first phase, village heads and executive officers of municipal bodies in urban areas will conduct verification. In the second phase, the District Implementation Committee constituted under the chairmanship of the DM and in the third and final phase, the DFO, MSME will conduct the verification of the state-level committee formed under the chairmanship of the Central Government.