Punjab govt to identify poorest among unemployed in villages: Amarinder Singh

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday said efforts were underway to identify the poorest among the unemployed people in villages in order to provide them jobs. In a bid to give impetus to his government's flagship 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar Mission' scheme, he said 10 of the poorest among those unemployed were being identified in every village in the state.

He said that so far, 134,104 such youths had been identified. Of these, 32,420 were placed in private employment and 12,114 were successfully skill-trained, he added. Singh also announced a free coaching scheme which would help candidates prepare for Group C exams for public sector and government jobs.

He said the scheme was aimed at enhancing employability in the public sector and the government would spend Rs 2 lakh for each group of 30 students for two-month coaching. The programme was being implemented on pilot-basis in Patiala, Mohali, Jalandhar, Sangrur and Ludhiana, he said. Tenders had already been floated for it, the chief minister said.

The chief minister made the announcements while he was in Chamkaur Sahib town to hand over appointment letters to some of the 116,556 youths who were selected for jobs and identified for self-employment or skill training during the recently concluded 5th Mega Job Fair. He also interacted with the youths, many of whom have received salary packages up to Rs 20,000 in this round of the job fair.

Describing these opportunities as stepping stones for future success, Singh said a bulk of these jobs, with packages of less than Rs 10,000, had gone to school dropouts. It helped them come them out of the cycle of unemployment in which they were caught after failing to complete their education, he said. He recalled that he himself had started his career in the Army with a meagre salary of Rs 325, with just Rs 50 as high-altitude allowance.

Singh expressed his appreciation for the success of the job fairs which have so far seen 10.70 lakh placement and recruitment. He said that the private sector, which was infused with new dynamism due to government's investment and industry friendly policies, absorbed 3.75 lakh candidates.

Forty thousand were given employment by the government and the remaining were facilitated self-employment, since the first job fair was held in August-September 2017, he said. The chief minister noted the "growing success rate" of these job fairs.

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