Punjab to dedicate 2008 as year of education and employment

Chandigarh, Jan 12 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today declared 2008 as the year of education and employment generation in the state.

Mr Badal stated this here while inaugurating an international conference on investment opportunities for global competitiveness and employability of Punjab's youth organised by International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry (IPCSI) on 6th Annual Parvasi Punjabi Divas 2008.

Mr Badal said that the state government had decided to undertake an extensive survey of the educated unemployed youth with rural background to enable them to get appropriate jobs according to their educational qualifications and experiences.

He said that the department of employment generation set up by the government would directly supervise this task and the compilation of data therefore, would act as a reservoir to provide relevant jobs to the eligible candidates.

"The government has also focused its intention to generate tremendous potential for job opportunities for the unemployed youth by opening skill development centres to upgrade their skills so that they could be gainfully employed in the country as well as abroad," he said.

He said that the state government had already tied up with multi-national company Larsen and Toubro to set up a skill development centre to impart training to the youth in the field of construction and building.

Outlining the vision of his government to impart quality education to the students, Mr Badal said that with the opening of Adarsh Schools in the state, the government had made concerted efforts to provide quality education to the students who belong economically weaker section at free of cost.

He said that the government had initially planed to set up 100 such schools out of which 70 had been finalised. He urged the NRIs to come forward and adopt these schools as government was ready to bear 75 per cent of the cost component and the remaining 25 per cent was to be borne out by the NRIs.

The Chief Minister also asked the NRIs to take initiatives for development projects and schemes in their native villages in the same ratio of 75:25.

He also impressed upon the NRIs to share their experiences with the state government in the diverse fields of medicine, healthcare, education and public sanitation to provide basic civic amenities especially to the disadvantaged sections of the society in an effective manner.

UNI PS JS1714