Ludhiana: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today strongly rejected the opposition's charge that job fairs being organised by his government were facilitating only low-paying jobs.  

Under the 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar te Karobar' scheme, with the fresh distribution of 9,592 appointment letters, the number of jobs generated during the year has risen to 1,61,522, it was informed at an event here.  

The event, to mark the distribution of the appointment letters at the culmination of the second Mega Job Fair, coincided with the first anniversary of the Congress victory in the last assembly polls, which paved the way for the installation of the Amarinder Singh government.  

The job fair was organized by the government at 150 venues from February 20 to March 8. Major corporates, including Maruti Suzuki, Microsoft, ICICI Bank, Amazon, etc, used the platform to hire talent. The chief minister congratulated the youngsters who got appointment letters while thanking the large number of corporates for taking part in the job fairs.  

Pointing out that over 1.61 lakh youths had got jobs in the first year of his government, Singh claimed this was no mean achievement. He rejected opposition charges that the job fairs were facilitating only low-paying jobs, saying that the packages offered in the fair ranged between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 31 lakh per annum.  

There were eight companies that gave over Rs 12 lakh per annum packages, 12 companies with packages over Rs 10 lakh a year, 24 with Rs 7 lakh per annum packages and 66 that provided salary packages of Rs 5 lakh a year, he disclosed.  

Singh urged youngsters not to pursue only government jobs under the notion they were better paying. Reiterating his government's commitment to fulfilling the pre-election promise of 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar', he said the government was on the right track, with plans to set up various universities, including skill development, sports and horticulture.  

The Congress government had created an environment of peace in the state to facilitate progress, he said. Peace is of critical importance for the state and he would not allow anyone to disturb it, vowed the chief minister. PTI