Chandigarh July 12: Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal today urged Youth that they should not let the uncertainties arising due to COVID-19 Pandemic overpower the enthusiasm and zeal in their lives. “To emerge from the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have to convert every situation into an opportunity and emerge as nation builders”, he said.

The Chief Minister was speaking during a webinar 'YuvaManthan with MukhyaMantri' a professional talk on the theme of 'COVID-19 Challenges and Opportunities' held here today through video conferencing. The programme was organized by Youth For New Haryana.

The programme saw participation of as many as 400 experts from all the fields including Medical, Law, Industry and also including Academicians, Environmentalist, Agriculturalists, Students and other professionals from State, Country and Overseas.

While appreciating Haryana Government’s dedicated efforts to tackle the COVID-19 situation which has resulted in placing the State at a better position, the participants also offered their suggestions and feedback urging the Government to take further innovative and strong measures to overcome this challenge.

Saying that every crisis situation presents an opportunity, the Chief Minister during the question-answer session shared a long list of initiatives taken by the State Government in both Pre-COVID and Post-COVID scenarios and also gave an overview of the upcoming schemes and policies being formulated by the State Government.

The Chief Minister said that in order to ensure that students studying in various institutions do not suffer academically during COVID-19, as many as 70 lakh students have been facilitated through online classes and distance education through television.

Referring to a query regarding the State Government’s plans for students returning from abroad due to COVID-19 Pandemic, the Chief Minister assured that all such students would get admission in best colleges and universities of the State as Haryana is known as an education hub.

Chief Minister remarked that despite the fact that Haryana is only 2 percent of the population of the country, the State has not only performed exceptionally well in agriculture sector, but is also developing as a Sports hub and has made its mark in the industrial sector, especially automobiles. He further shared that every tenth soldier in the Indian Army is from Haryana.

Sharing information on the steps taken by the State Government for ensuring social harmony among people he said, “By raising the slogan ‘Haryana ek Haryanvi ek’, we had urged the people of the state to eradicate casteism for the development of the state and I am happy that people have understood this.”

Chief Minister said that during the present State Government’s regime, jobs are being given on merit basis and to assert his point, he cited the example of recent appointments of Haryana Civil Service-2020 (HCS) officers and others too. He said that online transfer policy implemented by the State Government has played a pivotal role in eliminating corruption.

He said that to make Youth skilled and employable, a first of its kind Shri Vishwakarma Skill University (SVSU) has been established. Besides this, to support the unemployed youth of the State Saksham Yojana has been launched, under which the unemployed youth are being paid an amount of Rs. 9000 for 100 hours of work.

He said that with the aim to save water, ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat Yojana’ has been launched under crop diversification. Under this scheme, farmer willing to adopt crop diversification would get an incentive of Rs 7,000 per acre from the government. “It gives me immense pleasure to share that till now against the set target of one lakh hectare, farmers have already given their consent of not growing paddy on more than 1, 22,000 hectare,” he asserted.

Highlighting the significance of Information Technology (IT) utilized to tackle the COVID crisis, the Chief Minister said that with the help of IT, State Government ensured that help reaches every needy. Distress Ration Tokens (DRTs) have been distributed to provide ration to those people who do not have any ration card, he said.

He said that on the call made by the State Government, 70,000 volunteers including doctors and paramedics are offering their services in this hour of need.