Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday announced that his government will soon introduce a new scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) students, who had been backstabbed by the central government, which had abruptly ended the post- matric scholarship scheme for them.
He said the new scheme would give an opportunity to students of weaker sections to pursue higher learning in various streams, which they had been deprived of due to withdrawal of the scholarship scheme by the Government of India. He said the state government was in the process of recasting this scheme with the aim of ensuring that no SC student is deprived of higher education.
Capt Amarinder also reiterated his government’s resolve to recruit 1 lakh youth in government jobs over next one and half year, of which 50,000 will be recruited till March, 2021, and another 50,000 by the end of its term.
Addressing a virtual programme on the culmination of the 6th State Level Mega Rozgar Mela from Patiala, along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whom the Chief Minister thanked for his vision to include the state government’s flagship programme for employment generation - ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar’ - in the party’s manifesto during the 2017 Assembly elections, Capt Amarinder noted with satisfaction that his government had, in the past 3.5 years, successfully created job opportunities for 13.42 lakh youth through placement and self-employment assistance under the scheme. Of these, 50,000 government and 4.04 lakh private jobs had been given to the youth, besides facilitating nearly 8.80 lakh youth in taking up self- employment ventures, he said.
The Chief Minister apprised Rahul Gandhi that eminent multinational corporates like Microsoft, and other private companies of India, including Trident, Guru Gobind Singh Refinery (HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd.), Bathinda, had played a pivotal role in offering remunerative jobs to Punjab’s youth.
Pointing out that Punjab had once led the country in the SME sector, despite being a predominantly agrarian economy, Rahul said the previous Akali-BJP government in the state had decimated the same, just as they were now trying to ruin agriculture.
However, under the incumbent government, Punjab continues to nurture its cottage small and micro industrial units, which have an enormous potential to grow and result in job creation, he said. He noted that even Microsoft started its journey as a small company, and these small Punjab units would also grow into large companies under the nurturance of the innovative and hardworking youth.
Rahul emphasized the need to create a perfect synergy between agriculture and industry to ensure balanced economic growth in the country.
He said instead of bringing the draconian agricultural laws, the Centre should have helped the farmers by creating an excellent infrastructure and system to ensure holistic growth of agriculture.
They should have focused on the welfare of the farmers by providing them a well-knit network of Mandis and silos for scientific storage of foodgrains, he added.