POKHARA, JUNE 28 Rupa Rural Municipality of Kaski district has accorded top priority for the youth self-employment programme targeting overseas returnee migrants, who are arriving home after losing jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Chairman of the rural municipality, Nabraj Ojha, said that such a programme was unveiled targeting returnee migrants for entrepreneurship development, adding that youth entrepreneurs would be given loan subsidy to support their ventures. He added that foreign returnee youths would be provided with loan subsidy at four per cent interest rate to create an environment conducive for self-employment at home. Ojha said that Rs 15 million had been allocated under the youth and self-employment heading for the fiscal year 2020-21 with the plan to provide subsidy loan to around 1,000 youth. The loan will be given for animal husbandry, agriculture and small and cottage industries. The rural municipality with 4,500 households and 22,000 population has also collected data of individuals wishing to return home by visiting their households. In the rural municipality, 1,881 migrant workers have expressed their wish to return home by this year’s Dashain. For agriculture, 11.6 million has been allocated while Rs 9.4 million has been allocated for animal husbandry, Chairman Ojha said. A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 29, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.