In order to give a major fillip to the skill development in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced to open three Skill Centres of Excellence in medical and paramedics in the Government Medical Colleges at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot. Apart from this, six Multi-Skill Development Centres would come up at Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar and Ropar. This decision was taken by the Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal in the first meeting of the Governing Council of the Punjab Skill Development Mission (PSDM) held here at CMO this morning.
Envisaging this step as a move towards emerging Punjab as a pool of skilled manpower, Mr. Badal announced a sum of 15 crore for these three Skill Centres of Excellence to be opened in Government Medical Colleges and asked the PSDM to grant Rs. five crore each to the six upcoming Multi-Skill Development Centres in the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Likewise, the Chief Minister also gave nod to prepare a comprehensive plan to open a Skill Development Centre for Construction workers each in the Majha, Doaba and Malwa zone and asked the Principal Secretary Labour to work out modalities after meticulous consultation with the leading construction and Infrastructure companies on the basis of their requirements. Similarly, a hi-tech Transport Skill Centre would be opened at Jalandhar by the Transport department on the pattern of already existing such Institute at Mahuana in Sri Muktsar Sahib District.
Emphasizing the need to provide boarding and lodging facilities to the youth who were keen to join these skill centres, the Chief Minister said that each Skill Development Centre would be provided with the hostel accommodation to facilitate them to undergo skill development training in a hassle-free and result-oriented manner.Taking part in the deliberations, the Chief Minister underscored the need to focus the modules/courses of skill development training related to the nature and requirement of local industry and suggested to open garment, textile and hosiery Skill development centre at Ludhiana and leather centre at Jalandhar. The Chief Minister asked the PSDM to come out with the composite proposal in the format of project report to impart technical and skill training to at least 50,000 youth to enable them to be gainfully employed in different sectors.
Briefing the Chief Minister about the perspective of the Mission, the Member Secretary of the PSDM Rakesh Verma apprised him about the various skill development schemes being undertaken by the mission in the first phase which have been approved by the steering committee of the mission headed by the Chief Secretary. He referred to few schemes like Deen Dyal Upadhaya– Grameen Kaushalaya Yojna, Employment through skill training and placement, Recognition of prior learning of construction workers, Skill Development of the wards/ dependents of construction workers, Seekho aur Kamao scheme of National Minority Development and Finance Corporation besides opening Skill development component Multi Sectoral Development Project for Minorities in six blocks of Sangrur and Gurdaspur districts. Prominent amongst others who attended the meeting included Cabinet Ministers Chunni Lal Bhagat, Mr. Ajit Singh Kohar, Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal, Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema and Mr. Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Additional Chief Secretary Mr. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Finance Mrs. Vinni Mahajan, Principal Secretary Labor Mr. Vishwa Jeet Khanna, Principal Secretary Technical Education Mr. MP Singh, Secretary Finance Mr. Jaspal Singh, MD Punjab Health System Corporation Mr. Hussan Lal and Chief Architect Punjab Ms. Sapna.