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Forget travel agents, now Canada is
visiting Punjabis
to fetch them
WSN Network
CHANDIGARH/TORONTO:
At a
time when Punjabis are paying through their nose to travel agents
and looking for all kinds of ways to breach Fortress West, the
Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has come up with a plan
to train Punjabis in Punjab itself and arm them with the desired
qualification to allow them to migrate legally and fetch skilled
jobs.
A delegation led
by Deputy Minister (BC) Emery Dosdall met Chief Secretary R.I. Singh
last week and a document of understanding is being finalised with
the Punjab State Council for Employment Generation and Training.
“Canadian generation is aging, population is showing a negative
growth. Hence, the country does not have the required number of
skilled workers. Further, this move by BC would check rampant
illegal immigration from
Punjab
through unscrupulous travel agents,” a senior
Punjab official
who attended the meeting was quoted as saying.
The official
informed that the BC also planned to open training institutes in
Punjab to train aspiring migrants in education, information
technology, medicine and other subjects as per the requirements of
their country . This is likely to give an opportunity to a lot of
people who otherwise do not fulfill the migration criteria, said the
official.
The official
said that the BC would provide technical, logistic, staff and
equipment support for the purpose. Administrative Secretary,
Employment Generation and Training, N.S. Kang, confirmed that
negotiations were on between the Punjab government and the
delegation from BC. “The proposals are still at a nascent stage. We
have laid out a broad framework and talks are on,” added Kang.
 The
understanding has been reached that
Punjab
and BC share a mutual interest in setting up of
the arrangement
which could develop and deploy Punjab’s human resource under the
overall legal emigration and diplomatic framework of the two
countries of India and Canada for mutual benefit. Both sides will
facilitate setting up of affiliated or accredited institutes of
training and upgrade of human resources to produce the required
competency . They will also identify impending requirements in the
short term as well as long-term future demands for all types of
human resource in terms of the required skill sets and their
numbers.
9
April
2008
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