Rio waits for Vajpayee’s 25000 jobs scheme to take-off
Karaiba Chawang
December 15
KOHIMA (MExN): As the youth empowerment programme culminated today amidst much fanfare, the State government seemed reasonably satisfied with the achievement during the “Years of Youth Empowerment”.
State Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who formally brought the curtains down on the 2-year long affairs concluded that the end is the beginning of promotion of youth activities in the state, ranging from creation of jobs, sports, music and health. Rio took the liberty of the grand evening to highlight both the performance of the government and the programmes that are in the offing.
Although, he said he was slightly upset by the slow take off on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vaypayee’s “25,000 jobs” scheme for Nagaland, Rio announced that the action plan for implementation of this scheme will be formulated and implemented soon. Recommendations from the workshop to be sponsored by DONER probably on January 30 and 31, 2006 will set the steps to put this dream into reality.
Rio said that more and more jobs are being created for youths of the state, which included introduction of 2 new IRB battalions in 2004-05, recruitment of 11th IRB, and recruitment to the 12th IRB battalion and the Territorial Army will start next year. In the last 2 years about 1000 Naga youths have been recruited in the defence and central paramilitary forces.
Under the Chief Minister’s corpus fund, about 1000 unemployed youths have been selected for financial and technical assistance, while under PMRY about 2800 youths for self employment.
Rio also said that under the CM’ corpus fund 790 graduates have been selected to undergo training at ITFT, 33 educated youths sent to Kolkata for 6 months toy making course and out of which 470 have got placements. He said that another 500 graduates will be sent to ITFT, Chandigarh for similar job oriented course.
The government has taken several steps to streamline sports activities Rio also disclosed, which includes affiliation of Nagaland Olympic Association to Indian Olympic Association, revived grant in aid to all state level sports associations regularly. For the first time a full fledged state team will take part in the forthcoming national games scheduled for next year.
The Chief Minister went to add that the State sports policy has been drafted, and the state sports calendar activities are being chalked out. The Government has renamed the inter-district football championship to Dr. T. Ao Memorial Inter-district Trophy as mark of respect to the sports personality.
Rio further disclosed that State Music Task Force to promote music as an industry has been set up and the music academy will be established shortly in the state.
“There is already a demand for Naga musicians to perform in various star hotels”, said the Rio, pointing out that recently the Naga musicians have gained a name after their performance in Delhi at various locations. He also said that similar shows will be organized in Mumbai sometime in February 2006.
“The future belongs to the youth. Hence, the strength of our youth will become the strength of our society”, Rio said and urged the youths to take advantage of the government policies.
The three days’ extravaganza marking the culmination programme of the “Years of Youth Empowerment” was dominated by various youth activities ranging from competitions, beauty pageant, sky diving, music, sports and other cultural items.
More than 800 participants, delegates and officials from all the districts took part in the 3 day events.
The Valedictory ceremony of the “Years of Youth Empowerment” had earlier set the launching pad for various youth promotion activities. It was initially declared for one year. However, the state government after realizing that manifold programmes and events could not be accommodated within one period extended it to 2 years, i.e. year 2004 and 2005.
Meanwhile, as the youth empowerment programme concluded, several resolutions were passed. This included the resolve to ‘say no to drugs and yes to life’, ‘to protect the environment’, ‘maintain healthy mind and health of youth’, ‘spread good will’, and lastly ‘to inculcate a spirit towards dignity of labour’.
