CHANDIGARH: Even as a large number of jobs collated by the Punjab government by tying up with private players are finding no takers, the state’s employment department has set a stiff jobs target for the financial year 2019-20. The Amarinder Singh-led government claims to have provided around 4 lakh jobs since coming into power in March 2017. However, this includes loans provided to about 2.5 lakh youths under the self-employment scheme.The focus has now shifted to providing wage employment and targets have been given based on employment opportunities in each district. Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Bathinda and Jalandhar — the six districts with a high number of industrial units and other business establishments — have been given a target of ensuring jobs for at least 6,000 unemployed youth in a year.The remaining 16 districts have been asked to provide jobs to least 5,000 youth. The targets have been fixed in consultation with senior bureaucrat Karan Avtar Singh, the chief secretary to the chief minister.The department has also set targets for registering jobseekers and employers on the Punjab government’s Ghar Ghar Rozgar portal.Employment bureaux in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Bathinda and Jalandhar have to register 24,000 jobseekers and 600 employers and the remaining 16 district bureaux have to register 20,000 job-seekers and 500 employers in the next financial year.Each of the bureaux has constituted teams entrusted with responsibility of visiting business establishments in their respective areas to find vacancies and convince them to fill the openings with unemployed registered with them.The Punjab government has organised mega job fairs in addition to routine placements by district bureaux to cut unemployment. A large number of jobs offered, mainly private, remain unfilled. The vacancies are for people whose qualifications range from under Class X to postgraduation and are in 18 to 35 age bracket.Against 80,000 jobs available, only 18,672 were filled in the mega job fair held in November. There were only 11,500 and 18,000 takers for around 50,000 jobs in the first and second edition of the fair, respectively. Not only that, the placement record of many district bureaux is far from impressive. From April 1, 2018 till December 31, 2018, the number of people provided employment in as many as eight districts remained below 900.According to an official working in one of the district bureau, majority of job-seekers are not interested in private jobs. “They want government jobs or want to move abroad.”Punjab employment generation minister Charanjit Singh Channi said stiff targets have been set and efforts will be made to achieve them. “Each bureau will get support from all the departments of the government in achieving their target,” said Channi.The bureaux have also been asked to register labourers, who stand on labour chowks in their areas, on the Ghar Ghar Rozgar portal.

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