Mumbai,  June 19 (KNN) Maharashtra government will soon launch the Chief Minister 's Employment Generation Program for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which will create 10 lakh jobs in the next five years, Dr Harshadeep Kamble, Development Commissioner (Industries), reportedly said.

This scheme is for promoting entrepreneurship and to address unemployment issues among educated unemployed youth, Kamble said

He said that the flagship programme of the Industries Department will have 30 per cent reservation for women entrepreneurs.

The senior official said the scheme, approved by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis envisages setting up one lakh units in five years, 40 per cent of them in rural areas.

"Target is setting up of 10,000 micro-ventures to by first-generation entrepreneurs," he added.

Commenting on this, Past President of FISME, Dinesh Tripathi told KNN India "This is a good inititiative by state government and it definitely shows that the government is aware about employment issues which is low since independence."

This initiative will awaken all the government functionries and ignite the sectors to create employment, he added.

The programme will cover manufacturing, service and agro-based activities, including those in retail, Dr Kamble had said.

The scheme will be implemented on the lines of the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) with online applications.

It will provide easy financial assistance as a viability gap funding for approved project cost of up to Rs 50 lakh for manufacturing activities and up to Rs 10 lakh for service sector activities, he added.

The nodal bank for the programme will be Corporation Bank and beneficiaries will be financed by nationalised and private Sector banks like Yes Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, he said.

To supplement this programme, 50 new industrial parks will be developed at taluka level by the government, Kamble said.