Sukhbir offers skill centres for state's youth

Gurdaspur: To woo young voters and farmers ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, the Punjab government has announced to open skill development centres and give interest free crop loans worth Rs 50,000 to farmers.
While addressing a gathering at Shaheed Lieutenant Navdeep Singh (Ashoka Chakra) Sports stadium here on the eve of inauguration of automated driving test track centre on Thursday, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said the government would soon open 200 skill development centres across the state."We aim to make the youth employment generators not job seekers," he said.
Sukhbir claimed that his government would provide jobs to 1.2 lakh youths of Punjab through a transparent process and that every centre would churn out at least 1,000 fully skilled and trained youths every year. Speaking about farmers, Sukhbir said his government had framed a policy to give interest free crop loans of Rs 50,000 to them. "Farmers get free power for their tubewells for which the state government pays Rs 6,000 crore from its own coffers to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) every year," he said.
While he accused Congress of creating an unnecessary issue of cash credit limit (CCL) for the purchase of foodgrains, he criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on its governance formula, saying it had failed in Delhi and the party now had set its eyes on Punjab with next year's assembly polls in mind.
"AAP convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has ditched the farmers of Punjab on the Saltuj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue by supporting Haryana's stand. AAP clearly exhibited its anti-Sikh attitude with its MLA Alka Lamba being instrumental in the demolition of 'piau' (water kiosk) at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi," he alleged.