Industries going slow on training centres

BHUBANESWAR: With the State facing a huge gap in skilled manpower, the Government has asked the industries to operationalise industrial training centres (ITCs) they had promised to set up from the next session. Expressing displeasure over the delay, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sought a status report from the Industries department.At least 26 industries had signed MoU for setting up  ITCs at their own cost. While 19 of them acquired land and started developing infrastructure, including construction of buildings, not a single ITC is ready so far. As per the understanding, the Directorate of Technical Education and Training (DTET) extends  technical support for qualitative implementation of skill building training programme. The Government identifies the land and facilitates transfer on payment of cost. The companies will have to develop the required infrastructure as per the norms of the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) within one year of taking possession of the land. However, not a single ITC has come up even after acquiring land for the purpose for more than two years. Sources in the Industries department said 19 companies have sought the permission of DTET to start the training programme from August next in rented accommodation as buildings for the industrial training are at different stages of construction. This came to the notice of the Government during a recent review on the status of the proposed ITCs by Chief Secretary B K Patnaik. The Chief Secretary asked the remaining seven companies to start their ITCs from August in temporary accommodations without fail. The companies have been instructed to take necessary approval of DTET for operationalisation of the ITCs. Posco, Tata Power, Bhusan Steel, Visa Power, Monnet Ispat, GMR Energy, IMFA, Deepak Steel and Power, BRG Iron and Steel, Rungta Mines, Lanco Power and the State-owned Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) are some of the companies which had signed MoU with the Government to set up ITCs. Presently, the State has 585 ITCs with an intake capacity of over 68,000. It has been estimated that the State will require around 1.5 lakh skilled manpower in material and manufacturing sectors, while the demand from the mining sector will be over one lakh trained manpower keeping in view the huge investment flowing into the State.