Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey today called on Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Brahmaputra State Guest House and discussed various issues related to skill development in the state.
During the meeting, the Union Minister urged the state government to allot suitable land for setting up Northeast Skill Centre at Guwahati which would cater to the skill development needs of the eight states of the region. The Chief Minister assured that land was already identified for the purpose and would be provided soon.
Sonowal said that there had been a significant increase in trade and business activities in the state and central government's steps like providing of nearly Rs 23000 crore for NRL's productivity augmentation from 3 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA had warranted large pool of skilled manpower for taking advantage of the boost to economic activities in the state.
He urged the Union Minister to provide the necessary support to the state government for expediting the process of setting up Assam Skill University. This university would help the youth of the entire region to fulfil their dreams of becoming able citizens of the country, he said.
The Chief Minister also urged the Union Minister to set up a centre of National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) in the state so that trainers of ITIs in the state could be provided quality training here itself. It is to be mentioned, in the absence of such an Institute, trainers need to go to Kolkata for receiving training, Union Minister Pandey assured of taking necessary action in this regard.
During the meeting, the chief minister also raised the issue of the low quality of construction work carried out by unskilled contractors and the resultant dilapidation of public infrastructure like roads, bridges, buildings etc within a short period.
He called on the Union Skill Development Ministry to take initiative to provide skills to the contractors for making Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a new India a reality.
The Union Minister directed the Ministry officials present in the meeting to explore the possibility of developing programmes for skill development of contractors in partnership with Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship.
Minister for Industry and Commerce, Skill Development etc Chandra Mohan Patowary apprised the Union Minister about various steps taken by the state government for skill development of state's youth. He informed that according to Assam Industrial Policy, an amount of Rs 10000 would be given by state government as an incentive to the industries against recruitment of each local youth.
