PUNJAB GOVERNMENT
TO DEDICATE 2008 AS A YEAR OF EDUCATION
& EMPLOYMENT GENERATION
CHANDIGARH JANUARY 12:
Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal today announced
to dedicate year 2008 to the education and employment generation
in the state.
While inaugurating an international conference on investment
opportunities for global competitiveness & Employability of
Punjab youth organized by International Punjabi Chamber for Service
Industry (IPCSI) on 6th annual Parvasi Punjabi Divas 2008 here
at Hotel Mountview, Mr.Badal said that our 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 our government
would directly supervise this gigantic task and the compilation
of data therefore, would act as a reservoir to provide relevant
jobs to the eligible candidates. Besides our government had also
focused its intention to generate tremendous potential for job
opportunities for the unemployed youth by opening skill development
centers to upgrade their skills so that they could be gainfully
employed in the country as well as abroad. He said that the state
government had already tied up with an eminent multi-national
company Larsen & Toubro to set up a skill development center
to impart training to the youth in the field of construction and
building. He said that there was an ample scope for the youth
to be absorbed in the avenues of electrical, mechanical, auto
engineering, plumbing and marble fixing. He said that the government
had also set up a private security training institute at Jehankhelan
in Hoshiarpur district to impart training to the unemployed youth
in the field of private security. He said that with the up coming
malls, shopping plazas, multiplexes, industry and clubs there
would be a considerable scope of their absorption.
Outlining the vision of his government to impart quality education
to the students, Mr.Badal said that the state government was fully
seized of its inherent weaknesses in the system of education.
He said that with the opening of Adarsh Schools in the state,
the government had made concerted efforts to provide quality education
to the intelligent and poor students at free of cost. He said
that the government has initially planed to set up 100 such schools
out of which 70 had been finalized. He urged the NRIs to come
forward and adopt these schools as government was ready to bear
75% of the cost component and the remaining 25% 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 and meaningful manner.
Dwelling on the concept of human resource development, Mr.Badal
said that it was a sorry state of affairs that none of any government,
Centre or States had paid any attention to this one of the most
crucial aspect rather completely ignored it. He said that our
government had made concerted efforts to concentrate on this issue
and the positive results were forthcoming.
In his theme address patron of IPCSI, Mr.AR Kohli said that
with half the population under the age of 25% India has already
the youngest labour force in the world. "India is not expected
to pass china in total population until 2030. But India will have
more young workers aged 20 to 24 by 2013. The international labour
predicts that by 2020, India will have 116 million workers in
this age group bracket to China's 94 million, if these workers
are adequately trained and skilled, they will give the country
a huge competitive advantage in terms of raising per capita incomes
and reducing dependency ratios", observed Mr.Kohli.
In his welcome address President of Honour IPCSI Dr.AS Marwaha
from USA emphasized the need to impart skill training to the youth
so that they could further create job opportunities for the unemployed.
He said that it was a high time to shift the focus from job seekers
to job creators.
On the occasion, Dr.Gulshan Sharma, Secretary General, IPCSI
highlighted the concept of the conference and introduced the dignitaries
to the Chief Minister.
Earlier, the Chief Minister formally inaugurated the conference
by lighting a lamp and released a book 'Knowledge Reservoir' –
a roadmap for the skill development. He also honoured some eminent
personalities including Prof.Satinder Dhiman, Inder Singh, Darshan
Singh Bagga, Jasbir Singh Sachar, Ms. Anu Peshawaria Bobby Rekhi
(all from USA), UNITECH Executive Vice President VK Chadha, SS
Chawla from Thailand, Protector General of Immigrants J Panda,
Mr.Gaipov Sunnatulla of Uzbekistan Airways, Regional Head ICICI
Bank Vishal Batra and Amandeep Walia from Standard Chartered.
SANGAT DARSHAN TIMINGS CHANGED
FROM JANUARY 15
CHANDIGARH JANUARY 12:
Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal would now hold Sangat
Darshan at his residence ( K.No.45, Sector 2, Chandigarh) on every
Tuesday from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm instead of earlier timings of
4.00 pm to 5.30 pm with effect from January 15.
Disclosing this here today Advisor to Chief Minister Dr.Daljit
Singh Cheema said that the change in the timing scheduled had
been effected keeping in view the convenience of the general public.
LOOMBA TRUST UK SIGNS MOU WITH
PUNJAB GOVERNMENT
CHANDIGARH JANUARY 12:
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Punjab Government
and the Loomba Trust (UK) was signed here in the presence of Punjab
Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal at his residence late last
evening. Mrs.Cherie Blair President of Loomba Trust and Principal
Secretary School Education KBS Sidhu signed on behalf of the Loomba
Trust and Punjab Government.
The MoU had been signed to substantially upgrade the infrastructural
facilities in the Govt. Senior Secondary School, Dhilwan in Kapurthala
district on the basis of sharing of 50:50. The trust would contribute
Rs.50 lakh for this project and the same amount would be contributed
by the Punjab government. Mr.Raj Loomba an NRI from Dhilwan and
architect of this project would work on the finer details and
it was mutually agreed to rename the school as Shri Jagiri Lal
Loomba Memorial Government Senior Secondary School Dhilwan.
Taking part in the deliberations, Mr.Badal said that it was a
matter of great honour for all of us that first such project had
fructified after the detailed interaction with NRIs during the
recently concluded Punjabi NRI Sammelan at Chandigarh and Jalandhar.
'During the Sammelan our government motivated the NRIs to adopt
schools in their native villages with an objective to provide
quality education to the students and it is an endeavour of the
state government to upgrade all the senior secondary schools in
the state in a phased manner and NRIs could play a pivotal role
in this direction', said Mr.Badal. He urged the other NRIs also
to follow the footsteps of Loomba Trust to strengthen the educational
scenario in the state.
Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Cherie Blair said that education
was a base of any healthy society or a nation. She said that government
alone could not undertake this social task due to limited resources
especially in developing and under develop countries. She impressed
upon the non government organizations, voluntary, social and religious
organizations to come forward to generate generously for such
causes. It may be recalled the Loomba Trust had been working extensively
in the field of education for the children of poor widows all
over India and other under developed countries.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included
Chief Secretary RI Singh, Mr.Raj Loomba and his wife.
HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS
IN FRANCE- BADAL WRITES TO PM
TO INTERVENE WITH THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT
Chandigarh January 12: Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh
Badal today asked the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to intervene
with the French Government to ensure that there are no violations
of human rights against the Indians especially Punjabis and the
Sikhs in that country.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that
cases of racial discrimination against the Indians in general
and Punjabis and the Sikhs in particular have been on the rise.
Mr. Badal had been receiving complaints from almost all over the
world about such cases.
In his letter Mr. Badal spoke about several recent incidents
of racial discrimination in France pointing out especially case
of ban on turban in educational institutions in that country.
He urged Dr. Manmohan Singh to take up the issue with the President
of France, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy who would be visiting India on
January 26.
S. Badal said that the Government and the people of France firmly
believe in sharing the liberal ethos incarnated in the values
for which people all over the world, the French in particular
have fought. Mr. Badal hoped that Dr. Singh would certainly bring
to the notice of the visiting dignitary, the issues of violation
of basic religious liberties against the Sikhs in that country.
And he hoped that the French President would not only appreciate
their concern in the matter but also take concrete steps to make
certain the image of the French Nation in respecting fundamental
right to religious freedom is safeguarded.
