2,000 Kashmiri youth to join paramilitary forces

NEW DELHI - It may not be enough to tackle the grave problem of unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir, which has around 300,000 jobless people, but the central government Friday announced that 2,000 youth from the state will be recruited in the central paramilitary forces.

“There was decline in violence in Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2009. We have taken a number of confidence building measures. As one more such measure, the government proposes to recruit about 2,000 youth as constables in five central paramilitary forces in the year 2010,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech.

Unemployment has been listed as one of the reasons for the growth of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.