Orissa seeks Rs 1116 cr from PC to set up ITC in Maoist affected districts

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa government has sought an assistance of Rs. 1116 crore from Planning Commission to set up one Industrial Training Centre [ITC] each in 186 blocks in 18 Maoist affected districts.

The state government believes that setting up the ITCs will not only help build a vast pool of skilled manpower required for industries coming up across the state but also woo the youths fro the remote areas being inducted into Red Brigade.

The state requires more than three lakh semi-skilled manpower with industries coming up in various sectors. Only steel sector can absorb about 1.8 lakh skilled, semi-skilled and non-skilled manpower every year. The mining sector requires 1.2 lakh trained personnel. Besides, the employment intensive tourism sector and the information technology have a demand for more than 12,000 trained youths each while the growing energy sector has a demand for some 3000 skilled people.

The state government also belatedly has found out that more and more skill imparting centres had to be set up in the remote areas to foil the Maoists attempt to recruit the hungry unemployed youths into the Red Brigade. The state government’s move to set up ITCs in these Naxal dominated districts could be a good beginning in this regards, experts said.

In the first phase, the union government granted 91 ITIs and 415 skill development centres in the state with public-private partnership (PPP) model .The state government is also settwhere such institutions are conspicuous by their absence.

As part of its policy to encourage the industrial hosues to set up ITCs, the state government on Monday signed MoUs with nine companies to set up ITCs.