CM appeals industry to give emphasis on hills

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

With a view to increase the employment opportunities in Uttarakhand, the Chief Minister  Trivendra Singh Rawat held discussions with a delegation of the Industrial Association Uttarakhand (IAU) at Secretariat on Wednesday.

Chief Minister said that in order to increase self-employment in the state, the government, administration, educational institutions and industry have to work together. Especially in the hill districts of the state, in order to increase the income, work has to be done on the skill development training, creating awareness regarding the vocational courses instead of conventional education, importance of vocational courses by academic institutions as well and making the provision for imparting soft skill training to the youth.

There should be a dialogue between the industry and academic institutions. It was discussed in the meeting that in the state, the district employment offices should not be restricted to just registration of the unemployed. Rather, the district employment offices should compile a data pertaining to the special qualification and skills of the unemployed and should provide it to the industry and investors. District employment offices should also do career counselling.

Cluster based hubs should be developed for production. There is immense potential for self-employment in the state based on local resources, products and the demand. Skill development and training can be effective in preventing migrating from the hill districts. It was informed by the Principal Secretary, MSME that 103 Growth Centers with Lead Product in the state have been selected. Work is being done in a serious manner on developing the growth centres at Block level. These growth centres will help in providing employment at the local level and would also play an effective role in preventing migration.

Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary Manisha Panwar, Secretary Soujanya, senior officials of the Industry Department and office bearers of the Industrial Association Uttarakhand were present in the meeting.