Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi (File) Wooing youth voters ahead of Assembly polls in the state, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi said his government would pay Rs 2,000 each to 8.67 lakh students in colleges across the state as Internet allowance so that they don’t have to spend from their pocket to take online classes. He also declared that the state’s Congress government, if voted back to power, would provide one lakh jobs to youth in Punjab within a year. The CM said that all students who have passed Class 12 would be eligible for these jobs under the Punjab Government Rozgar Guarantee for Youth Scheme (PRAGTY). Both PRAGTY and Internet allowance scheme were cleared by the state Cabinet on Tuesday.
After the Cabinet meeting, Channi said that the Internet allowance scheme would be notified Wednesday and money transferred in students’ accounts in 2-3 days. He asked those eligible to get in touch with their colleges with respective account numbers that can then be shared with the state government.
While colleges have been shut due to Covid surge, college managements now fear the announcement would create dangerous rush at educational institutions.
Earlier in the day, Channi launched the job guarantee scheme in Jalandhar, hours before the scheme was cleared by the Cabinet.
Channi said that the first decision of Congress government after being voted to power post polls will be to provide these 1 lakh jobs.
“This is a guaranteed scheme of the government and not of any political party. Whosoever becomes the CM in a few months, he will sign on 1 lakh jobs. We are giving this guarantee,” Channi declared.
CM further said that this job guarantee scheme will also ensure free coaching to the students for the competitive exams to civil services and armed forces. Apart from this, state government will also initiate start-up courses across universities, he said.
Punjab government will also set up a skill development university and rope in industry to push its skill development programme, said Channi.
He further said that the state government will provide interest free loans to youths for going abroad, along with free coaching for IELTS, TOEFL and PTE.
The CM informed that kin of 125 farmers who had died during kisan aandolan were handed over appointment letters for jobs on Tuesday. He said that government had received applications in 407 cases for ex-gratia and all have been paid the compensation amount.
HITS OUT AT GOVERNOR AGAIN
Hitting out at Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit yet again, Channi said he was sitting on the file of regularisation of jobs. “They sent back the file with some objections when we were going to sit on a dharna. We have responded to the queries immediately. Code of conduct will be in place soon and the Governor should realise that he cannot harm Punjabis’ interest under BJP pressure. There should be no politics at Governor’s level. But we understand that there is BJP pressure. I appeal to the Governor that the file should be cleared soon. Otherwise, we will sit on a dharna.”
On PM’s rally on Wednesday, he said, “We welcome PM Narendra Modi. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal will personally welcome him. I too wanted to go personally but two staff members in my office have tested positive for Covid. So, I cannot go personally,” said Channi while addressing the media, without wearing a mask.
When questioned, he waved a mask to the media and said he had taken it but he had removed it just to address the media persons. He countered the media persons stating they were also without masks.
Earlier in Jalandhar too, norms were flouted openly in CM’s function where a huge gathering was present without masks. Channi, who was without a mask, mingled with mask-less crowd of youngsters, clicked selfies and even danced to a song.
AID FOR RAVIDAS TEMPLE IN DELHI
In a separate development, the CM said that his government is ready to bear the entire expenditure for acquiring land for the construction of Guru Ravidas Temple at Tughlakabad in Delhi.
On the orders of the Supreme Court, the Ravidas Temple in Tughlakabad was demolished in August 2019. But later the apex court allowed the reconstruction of the temple. Devotees say that Guru Ravidas visited this place in 1509 during the reign of Sikander Lodhi.
Channi said the Delhi Development Authority had recently asked the Guru Ravidas Vishram Dham Mandir Chamarwala Johar Tughlakabad Committee to deposit Rs 4.33 crore for acquiring 400 square metres of land, according to an official statement. Since the amount was quite hefty, he said various delegations approached him for seeking requisite contribution from the state government.
Channi said he would be the most fortunate in case the committee wishes to bestow service to the state government led by him.
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