Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
* Ruddy calls on CM Badal at Kapurthala house
New Delhi, Conceding the demand made by the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, the Union Skill Development Minister Mr. Rajiv Pratap Ruddy today said that the Government of India (GoI) would prepare a master plan for emerging the state as hub of Skill training within a fortnight.
The Union Minister, who called on the Chief Minister at Kapurthala house this morning, had detailed deliberations with the latter regarding the efforts being made by the GoI to promote skill training across the country.
Expressing concern over the mounting unemployment in the state, the Chief Minister said that the only silver lining in this dark tunnel was imparting of Skill education to the youth so that they could be gainfully self employed. Soliciting the whole hearted support and cooperation from the Union government for this noble cause Mr. Badal urged the Union Minister to formulate special plan for giving thrust to skill education in the state. He said that the state government has already set up Punjab Skill Development Mission under his Chairmanship which acts as an umbrella organization for implementation of the various Skill Development schemes in a big way.
The Chief Minister apprised Mr. Ruddy that schemes of five departments have been transferred to this mission and rest were in pipeline adding that the Mission has set a target of providing skill training to two lakh youth per year. He also asked the Union Minister to expedite the process of approving the proposal for setting up 43 ITIs and 250 skill development centers in the state. Likewise, Mr. Badal also underscored the need for speeding up the process of finalization and implementation of the uniform cost norms for Skill Development scheme of various Ministries.
The Chief Minister also informed Mr. Ruddy that Punjab was first state in the country to have signed Memorandum of Understanding with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for setting up Multi Skill Development Centers in the state adding that these centers would be set up across the state. Similarly Mr. Badal said that mandate has already been given to NSDC for selection of training partner in a center coming up at Ludhiana. However, he said that the matter needed to be expedited up.
Responding to the issues raised by the Chief Minister, Mr. Ruddy assured him that the Union government would formulate a policy for developing the state as a hub of Skill training within a fortnight. He said that the Ministry has already done the sectoral mapping of imparting skill development in the state besides identifying targets of providing this training in various sectors. The Union Minister said that the GoI was mulling to transform the ITIs across the country into Multi Skill Development Centers, so that the states could be benefitted from it. Lauding the state government’s initiative in the skill training sector, he said that Punjab has a tremendous potential in this sector.
Prominent amongst other present in the meeting included Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. KJS Cheema, Principal Secretary Technical Education Mr. MP Singh, Chairman NSDC Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Principal Secretary to Union Minister Mr. Kundan Kumar, Secretary Technical Education Mr. Rakesh Verma, Director Technical Traning Mr. B Purusartha, Secretary Environment Mr. KAP Sinha and Director Industries Mr. Raminder Singh.
