Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday lauded the services by youth during the COVID pandemic and said that they commendably rose to the occasion in the cause of society and the nation.

In a webinar interaction with Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members, drawn from some of the far-flung regions, including Basohli, Billawar and other parts of districts Udhampur and Kathua, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the world had been taken by surprise by the COVID pandemic, but preemptive and foresighted decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like the early lockdown, had helped India to fare better compared to several other countries, despite its high population of 135 crores.

It goes to the credit of the youth that they did not only themselves exercise restraint, self-control and discipline, but also motivated others to follow the guidelines like wearing face masks and social distancing.

Dr. Jitendra said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership and indeed the entire society was proud of the manner in which our young colleagues promptly swung into action and contributed their resources as well as energies to reach out to the stranded people and provided them all the essential help including ration etc.

During the meeting, different groups of BJYM members also put across the local issues of their respective areas. They also took up issues related to the construction of roads, availability of doctors in the hospitals, and local employment. Dr. Singh took a note of all these points raised by the youth participants in the Webinar and as a highly reassuring gesture, during the Webinar itself, he on-the-spot called up on telephone some of the concerned Deputy Commissioners and concerned Engineers and asked them to fix meetings with youth representatives and give a serious hearing to what they said.

Dr. Jitendra also advised the elected Sarpanchs and local body representatives among the youth to discharge their duties with confidence and said, it is their prerogative to suggest the priority of PMGSY road projects to be taken up in their respective Panchayats.

Various groups were led by Gaurav Shama, Jasbir Singh Jassi, Sushank Gupta and others. Each of the youth participants was given an opportunity to put across his views.