Kohima, July 27 (DIPR): “Our youth are our asset, hope and future and the Government is youth friendly government and continuing to work for them,” said State Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio while presenting government’s reply on the general discussion of the budget 2010-2011 on July 26, 2010.
Rio said that the government is targeting the youth to upgrade their talents, skills through the declaration of ‘Years of Youth Empowerment’ during the year 2004 and 2005, 2009-10 as the ‘Year of Capacity Building’ and the year 2010-11 as the ‘Year of the Entrepreneur.’ He said that during 2003-2004 to 2009-2010, 2301 persons were given vocational training where 831 persons were given job placements and during the years, the DAN Government has also provided Rs. 75 Crore under CM’s Corpus Fund and Capacity Building. Out of this, 5856 persons were assisted in projects for self-employment, while 5412 beneficiaries were assisted for employment generation.
Rio said that the government has framed the Nagaland Retirement (from Public Employment) Bill in 2009 primarily to create job opportunities for the youth. He further added that the government has also framed Nagaland State Sports Policy, which was formulated after recommendations of an expert panel comprising of senior Government officials, sports administrators and representatives of the Nagaland Olympic Association and Sports Associations. The active implementation of the Nagaland State Sports Policy have taken positive strides forward as the formulation of prioritised discipline as per the recommendations of panel has yielded many medals in the past few year, Rio added.
Commenting on the Queen’s Baton Relay of the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games which reached the State capital on July 25, Rio observed that the reception of the Queen’s Baton and the programme in Nagaland has been one of the most successful in the journey of the Baton which is crossing the homes of one third of the world’s population. Rio also informed that two archeries from Nagaland are undergoing training for participation in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in the month of October 2010 at New Delhi.
Rio further said that the government has taken upon the task of empowering the youth and preparing them to stand on their feet in order to enable them to meet new challenges of constantly changing scenarios as the youth have the talent and capability to achieve success and excel to the highest levels.