Youth Akali Dal President and Punjab Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia today said that the energy, determination and aspirations of youth should be channelised to address the nation's problems and challenges.
Launching an anti drug awareness campaign of Students Organization of India (SOI) here at Panjab University campus, Majithia said that youth were the crucial backbone for its future development and progress, and our country was fortunate to have 40 per cent population in 13-35 years' age group.
"The proportion of working age population between 15 and 59 years is increasing, with 63.5 million being added likely to this group between 2011 and 2016. The energy, determination and aspirations of youth must be channelised to address the problems and challenges that our nation was facing," he said.
SOI also got a boost today when 14 top leaders from Punjab University Students Union (PUSU) and Students Organisation of Punjab University (SOPU) including Simran Dhillon, Yadwinder Dhaliwal, Vicky Middukhera and Robin Brar joining the student's organisation in the presence of Majithia.
Welcoming PUSU and SOPU leaders in SOI, he said that the role of students' in politics was very important as the democracy could only strengthened by overwhelming response of public in election process.
He said that students with new ideas and could do something challenging that can rearrange the political priorities of the country to meet future challenges.
Students with sound educational background could proved to be an asset for any political set up to realise the dreams of their countrymen, he said, adding SAD had always accorded top priority to youth and gave significant representation not only in local bodies or Panchayat elections but also in Parliament or Vidhan Sabha elections.
Later speaking to reporters, Majithia said that Punjab has launched a crusade against smuggling of narcotics to save the young generation from falling prey to drugs.
"Punjab being on a transit route of drug trafficking has always suffered as Union government agencies have been miserably failed in checking the flow of drugs across border," he said.
He said that Punjab police has almost broken the back of smugglers and even unearthed the multi-thousand crore synthetic drug racket by making huge recoveries from states like Himachal Pradesh and Maharshtra.
Jagdish Singh Bhola, arrested in connection with the mutli-crore drug case, had alleged that Majithia was also involved in drug trade.
