BHUBANESWAR: Six years after the signing of MoUs with industries and PSUs to establish good quality industrial training institutes (ITIs) in different parts of the State, most of such institutes are yet to see the light of the day.
Sources said of 34 MoUs signed by the State Government in 2010 for setting up model ITIs, only 10 have made some progress in the last six years and nine have taken steps for possession of land while rest 15 have made no visible progress.
The ITIs were to be established to improve skill levels of youths and make the jobless highly employable to avail the benefits of industrialisation taking place in the State.
While the Director of Technical Education and Training (DTET) was to extend technical support for qualitative implementation of various skill building training programme in all such ITIs, the industrial houses were asked to develop required infrastructure as per NCVT norms within one year of taking possession of land.
Though a number of review meetings has been conducted in the past, no perceptible results have been achieved which has put the Government in a bad light.
In most of the cases, the corporate houses have indicated that slow progress in setting up the institutes is mainly due to slow or no progress of their industrial units in the State.
An official said it will be difficult to operationalise the ITI by NTPC Ltd at Shergarh in Ganjam in 2017-18 if the work of building infrastructure by CPWD is not expedited.
The ITI constructed at Lakhanpur in Jharsuguda by Ind-Barath Energy (Utkal) Ltd two years back is still continuing under the SCTE and VT pattern in conventional trade which is not desirable. They have not yet applied for NCVT affiliation, he said.
Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary R Balakrishnan, who recently reviewed the progress of such industry-sponsored institutes, expressed displeasure on slow or no progress made by some industrial houses.
He asked the Skill Development and Technical Education Department to take immediate steps for cancellation of the MoUs where no or little progress has been achieved in terms of establishment of the proposed ITIs.
“I have also suggested to create a WhatsApp group of the heads of the corporate houses and DTET officials for day-to-day review of the ITIs under progress,” Balakrishnan added.