Ganderbal, May 25: Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta Thursday said that unemployment hasn’t increased in the UT and those who claim so are “lying.”

Addressing a function at Wayil in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, Kumar said there is truth in claims that unemployment has increased in J&K. “Such claims are nothing but a big lie,” he said.

He said J&K is witnessing a change that can be gauged from the fact that in 2018-19, 9229 projects were completed at the capital expenditure of Rs 13650 Cr. “In 2022-23, 92560 projects were completed at almost the same amount. One is that the amount remained the same but efforts got doubled ten times,” the CS said.

He said that there are many schemes available for the unemployed youth who want to start their own ventures. “They don’t need to make rounds of banks and beg for loans,” he said.

The CS said that J&K is going to be the country’s number one UT in providing best digital services. “Computer doesn’t see the religion and cast of a person. Officials are time bound to complete services of people. For example, if a Patwari doesn’t complete the process of attestation of mutations within one month, he will be fined,” he said. Kumar thanked people for supporting the G-20 event and making it a success.