Union minister for skill development and entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey on Sunday called on Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal and discussed various issues related to skill development in the state.
Pandey, during the meeting, urged the state government to allot suitable land for setting up the Northeast Skill Centre in Guwahati.
“This would cater to the skill development needs of the eight states of the Northeast,” Pandey said.
To this, the CM assured that land was already identified for the purpose and would be provided soon.
Sonowal further informed the minister that there had been a significant increase in trade and business activities in the state.
“Centre’s steps like providing 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 said.
“Necessary support hence should be provided to the state government for expediting the process of setting up Assam Skill University,” Sonowal added.
Sonowal further said that the proposed skill university would help the youth of the entire region to fulfil their dreams of becoming able citizens.
The chief minister also urged the union minister to set up a centre of National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) in Assam so that trainers of ITIs in the state could be provided quality training here itself.
The union minister assured the CM 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 Pandey 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 Chandra Mohan Patowary apprised Pandey about various steps taken by the state government for skill development of state’s youth.
He informed that according to the 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.