Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: With assembly elections around the corner, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday announced that the state government would provide one lakh jobs to youth in Punjab within a year and free coaching for competitive exams besides IELTS, TOEFL to enable the youth to go abroad, if voted back to power, as the state cabinet approved the `Punjab Government Rozgar Guarantee for Youth Scheme (PRAGTY) 2022’.
After the late evening cabinet meeting, Channi said that this job guarantee scheme will also ensure free coaching to the students for the competitive exams to civil services and armed forces. He said the state government will also provide free coaching for IELTS, TOEFL and PTE to enable the youth togo abroad easily.
“To facilitate the youth in going abroad and save them from clutches of fake travel agents, Punjab government will soon embark on a programme to send the students abroad after obtaining clearances from the Centre, so that they do not fall prey to travel agents. The government will provide interest-free loans for this purpose,” he said and added that similar interest-free loans will also be extended to youngsters who are desirous of opening their own ventures. The state government will initiate startup courses across all state universities.
This scheme formulated by the Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training department and cleared by the cabinet is aimed at ensuring guaranteed employment facilitation including jobs, private sector jobs, foreign employment, foreign study, skill training including soft skill training, self employment,enterprise and entrepreneurship development, counselling and coaching for competitive examinations.
At the state level, PRAGTY will be implemented by Employment Generation, Skill Development and Training Department through Punjab Skill Development Mission, Punjab Ghar Ghar Rozgar and Karobar Mission, C-PYTE, Mai Bhago Armed Forces Preparatory Institute and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute. Further to ensure effective service delivery, at district level PRAGTYwill be implemented by District Bureau of Employment and Enterprise (DBEE) under the overall control and monitoring of the concerned Deputy Commissioner.
Notably, there are large numbers of the Punjab youth who are not able to get employment due to various reasons. Many times they are not aware about employment opportunities or at times he or she does not have the adequate counselling and guidance. To affirm government’s commitment towards finding a solution to the issue of unemployment and keeping in view the gravity of the situation and the possible facilitations that can be provided immediately to the unemployed youth, the present Scheme PRAGTY-2022 has been formulated in order to provide every possible facilitation to the unemployed youth of the state to help them become gainfully employed.
