Patna, Jan 17 (KNN) The Bihar cabinet has initiated "Bihar Laghu Udyami Yojana" (Bihar Small Entrepreneur Scheme), approved during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday.

The scheme, which will continue for five years, aims to provide job opportunities to over 9.4 million poor families, whose monthly income is less than Rs 6,000 a month, Siddharth said.

At least one member of the poor families will be provided grant up to Rs 2 lakh in three instalments to set up and run small industrial or processing units, such as handicraft, textile, saloon, eateries, among 63 types of units.

The socio-economic data released on November 7 revealed that 34.13 per cent of Bihar's families, totalling 9,433,312 households, are economically impoverished.

Among them, 3.31 million belong to extremely backward classes (EBCs), 2.47 million to other backward classes (OBCs), 2.34 million to scheduled castes (SCs), 1.08 million to the general category, and 201,000 to scheduled tribes (STs).

All poor families can avail the benefit of the scheme, which will be implemented by the state industries department and members of such families will have to apply online and produce the proof of family income to claim benefits of the scheme.

The state industries department will implement the scheme, allowing all eligible families to apply online and submit proof of income.

The selection of beneficiaries will be determined through a computerised randomization process and budgetary allocations, overseen by a state-level project monitoring and implementation committee.

District magistrates (DMs) will lead the implementation at the district level.

In addition to the entrepreneur scheme, the cabinet also approved an extension of financial aid to students fr0m EBC families preparing for various recruitment exams.

Apart fr0m civil services (mains) exams, EBC students gearing up for exams such as Indian Engineering Service, Indian Economic Service, Combined Geo-Scientists, and others will now receive one-time financial grants ranging fr0m Rs 30,000 to Rs 75,000.

The estimated annual expenditure for this extension is Rs 9.79 crore, demonstrating the government's commitment to fostering education and economic empowerment in Bihar.

(KNN Bureau)