With an aim to ensuring ‘employment for every hand’, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today asked the officers of the state government to get ready to achieve this gigantic task by providing requisite frame work to the unemployed youth to empower them with viable self-employment opportunities. In his inaugural address on the day long ‘National Workshop on Promotion of Self-employment in Punjab’ in association with National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD), Markfed and Punjab Agro here at Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (MGSIPA), Mr. Badal said that this objective could only be achieved after a thoughtful deliberations followed by a series of such meetings with the leading mentors in the field of self-employment and inclusive development. He asked the Chief Secretary to prepare a time bound action plan to offer huge opportunities to the unemployed youth for self employment clearly stipulating a self sustaining mechanism to offer back up support to impart them skill training, tie up for finances from the banks and other financial institutions by the government functionaries besides focusing on critical factors such as guidance, planning and survey to identify the needs of the local market/industry.
The Chief Minister further said that our rural youth was very receptive to emerging technologies, innovations and new ideas and was confident that they would certainly put their soul and mind in transforming their aspirations into reality provided they were properly guided by the experts in the field of self employment, skill development and entrepreneurship. Sharing his experiences, Mr. Badal said that recently he led a high powered delegation of progressive fish farmers to China to adopt new practices of fish farming and value addition to supplement their income. He mentioned that Chinese fish farmers were getting 35 tonnes of fish production per hectare as compared to just 6 tonnes per hectare in Punjab. Likewise, he also recalled how he motivated our youth to join armed forces by setting up Maharaja Ranjit Singh Preparatory Academy for Defence Services at Mohali. Riding on the success of this novel experiment, our government was now setting up another Mai Bhago Preparatory Academy for defence services exclusively for girls which would be made functional from the next academic session. He said that these academies would help the state in restoring its pristine glory in the defence services by sending majority of youth to the country’s prestigious armed forces which had been severely plummeted over the past several years.pulging his perspective for skill development program in health sector, the Chief Minister said that the state government had already initiated several certificate/diploma/degree/skill courses in health sectors and para medics in the government medical colleges of Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot keeping in view its huge demand in the healthcare sector. He pointed out that Punjab government recently inked a MoU with the Healthcare Sector Skill Council – an arm of National Skill Development Council at New Delhi to further enhance the scope of skill development opportunities in this emerging core sector.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the State Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal shared the theme of the self employment and strategies of the state government in skill development and related field. He asked all the senior officers to adopt a group of five youth to motivate them for self employed avenues by providing them the requisite back up support right from initiation of their project to its establishment. The Chief Secretary also announced to adopt such five youth for this noble venture, adding he said that the interaction with the experts and practitioners, NGOs, SHGs and youth during the workshop would facilitate innovation and adoption of better practices. Mr. Kaushal assured the Chief Minister that he would personally review the progress of self employment, skill development and entrepreneurship development program and update him regularly from time to time.
While proposing a vote of thanks during her concluding remarks, the Director MGSIP Mrs. Raji P. Shrivastava said that today’s workshop was a prelude to state government’s endeavor for creating tremendous potential of self employment, skill development and capacity building and these efforts would be further intensified to realize the vision of Chief Minister. She said that the vital inputs which were given by the several experts and participants in the workshop would be duly forwarded to the concerned departments for timely action and implementation in the right earnest.
Meanwhile, experts from fields such as agriculture, dairy research, fisheries, poultry, handicraft and home based industries including the Head National Dairy Research Institution Karnal Mr. AK Singh, Principal Scientist Central Institute of Fisheries Technology Cochin Dr. P Praveen, Chief General Manager NABARD Chandigarh Mr. Naresh Gupta, Sister Pratibha Pandya, Member Self Employed Women Association (SEWA) Ahmadabad, Apsor Udyogini New Delhi Dr. Veena Vishwanath, Senior Vice President ACCESS Development Services New Delhi Dr. Surymani Roul, Executive Direcor, State Disability Resource Centre Raipur Chattishgarh Dr. Rajesh Tiwari, Director Central Poultry Development Organization Ministry of GoI Dr. K.Ravvi Kumaar and Principal Consultant Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship Development Sector Chandigarh Mr. Paramjit Singh shared their views on financing of self employment ventures, bottlenecks in setting up small units and their resolution, skill gaps and how to overcome them, technical knowhow and mutual cooperation. On the occasion, principals of IIT Ludhiana, Ropar and Pathankot gave power point presentation on the emerging trades and technologies in consonance with the requirements of the industry especially the automobile.The Chief Minister was accompanied by Transport and Employment Generation Minister Mr. Ajit Singh Kohar, Advisor Dairying and Fishers Dr. PK Uppal and Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. KJS Cheema.