Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday handed over appointment letters to seven newly inducted Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs), with the promise of filling up another 400 vacancies for the post soon, as part of his government’s `Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ mission.A total of 139 ADOs have been recruited to the state Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department in this phase, with 400 more to be recruited through Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), said the Chief Minister, reiterating his Government's firm resolve to empower the state’s unemployed youth by providing them with gainful employment.Recalling that in the past one year, more than 1.65 lakh youth had been provided jobs, Captain Amarinder said his Government was committed to providing and nurturing a conducive ecosystem in order to generate more and more jobs. Giving jobs was the only way to wean addicted unemployed youth away from drugs, he added.
Congratulating the new joinees, Captain Amarinder exhorted them to dedicate themselves to the task of creating awareness about saving the precious groundwater resource, besides engaging with farmers on critical farming issues. He said that being the backbone of rural economy, the farming sector needed responsible handling by the Agriculture department.On the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Development Viswajeet Khanna apprised the Chief Minister that amongst the newly recruited 139 ADOs, there were 29 girls.These officers would be deputed in the cotton belt, extension programmes, soil test laboratories and the various water deficit districts. The induction training of these officers would be held at Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, where information would be imparted about acts, laws and schemes of department so that they could ensure proper implementation of various programmes at the grassroots level, he further informed.Prominent amongst others present at the occasion were Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary Finance Anirudh Tiwari, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh and Director Agriculture Jasbir Singh Bains.