Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's employment package for Jammu and Kashmir on Monday took formal shape when Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed distributed over 1,000 employment orders to youth in Srinagar.

During his visit to the Kashmir valley in April 2003, Vajpayee had promised 100,000 jobs to the unemployed in the state. The jobs are being created under the Rehbar-e-Taleem and Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan schemes.

Another 25,000 youth will be recruited, initially at a remuneration of Rs 1,500 per month for two years, which will be enhanced by Rs 500 for another three years when village education committees, to be formed to monitor the performance of the teachers, will submit reports for their regularisation.

Addressing the newly appointed teachers, the chief minister exhorted them to consider their five years of service prior to regularisation as their contribution towards nation building.