ON page 8 of The Tribune dated June 30, 2017, a young man Ankush Mahajan, has asked me a question. He is faced with a dilemma that many youth in Punjab, in fact across the country, are facing. He wants to know where he can or should go for a job after completing his postgraduation. I can understand the sense of despair that motivated him to share his helplessness through your esteemed columns. At the same time, I also appreciate his candour and boldness in escalating his concerns to me — after all, if the people have elected me they have every right to expect me to resolve their problems and dilemmas.While it is not possible to list down everything we are doing to help young men and women like him to become gainfully employed, let me share in brief some of the ways in which we are trying to create employment opportunities for them.The entrepreneurial schemes we have launched — Apni Gaddi Apna Rozgar, Harra Tractor, Yaari Enterprises etc, are excellent resources to make our youth gainfully employed and independent. And to my colleagues in the opposition who have accused me of trying to convert the state’s youth into taxi drivers, I can only say — isn’t it better than making them drug addicts and criminals? In any case, some of the most successful youth in the world today are not those in white-collared jobs but those who have taken the entrepreneurial route. What we are doing through these schemes is to promote self-employment, which I am sure will go a long way in helping the unemployed youth.Our focus on skill development in the education system, which we are revamping in order to make it more goal-oriented, is in line with our thrust on stimulating the job market, which had become totally stagnant over the past decade. The results of this revamp will start becoming visible on the ground soon, helping lakhs of youngsters become job-ready and fully prepared to take on the new opportunities that are opening up for skilled professionals not just in India but across the world. While skill development and entrepreneurship are the core areas of my government’s focus, we are, at the same time, cognizant of the need to create regular job openings for those who are not skillfully empowered in any way. We will soon notify vacancies in PCS to fill administrative posts in the government. Horticulture, health, education and agriculture are some of the other areas in which we are looking to create more job opportunities, in addition to industrial establishments such as Bathinda Refinery and power projects in the state. Industrial development to boost employment generation is, in fact, a key solution we are pursuing aggressively to address the problem of large-scale unemployment. The next few months will see a host of big and small industries setting up business in the state, thus opening up new job prospects for the job-seeking youth.The private sector is coming out aggressively to support our initiatives. Only yesterday, Quark City Infrastructure assured me that their company will generate 500 new jobs, with 5,000 more likely to be added by IT and other companies seeking to enter the Mohali Quark City at Mohali.Finally, a small word of advice for those who belong to the so-called General class of society. It is no more a curse than belonging to some special class is. It is all a matter of finding the right opportunity at the right time and the right place. And I can promise that my government is committed to give you such opportunities, now and for the next five years, irrespective of the so-called class, creed or religion you belong to!