AGARTALA, Feb 13 (TIWN): Tripura Govt had decided to set up State Skill Development Mission to enable youths to succeed in further employments even though CPI-M Govt’s 23 yrs misrule generated 7 lakhs unemployement. In a discussion on Skill Development in Tripura with M. Nagaraju, IAS, Principal Secretary said, “We haven’t limited ourselves to typical industrial skills; we also focus on native crafts and natural resources like rubber, tea, bamboo. Along with entry-level skilling we target upskilling and reskilling of employees to enhance quality, productivity and profits”. However, although skill development mission kicked off in Tripura and time to time Tripura Skill Development Website has been published but former Chief Secretary S.K.Panda led skill dev mission remained non-functional.

Tripura Govt said that the number of persons trained in Tripura are  : 37,068,whereas the number of employed are : 1,355 only.

Moreover, the number of trained persons are 37,068 but the persons who were Certified only 13,842. But surprising matter is that the details about the trainers are not available in the website.

Neither the Govt of Tripura is following any particular guideline to run this skill-development mission. Whereas the Nagaland Govt also adopted guidelines by PMKVY to the trainees to get jobs for themselves or be able to set up some enterprises thereby not only employing themselves but Tripura Govt has set up a separate directorate committee is to to run various programs of skill development in various sectors. Under these sectors, the youth of the state of Tripura will be trained based on skill, capabilities, merit and interests.

Now it’s wellknown that how under Mission Officer S K Panda is running this Skill Development Mission.

In the name of skill development Panda is finishing with some time-passing with unemployed youths of state  and thus the SkillDevelopment Mission remained just as a joke to the unemployed youths of Tripura.

The next plan is that the Govt will send offer letters to the youths who have been trained under Skill Development and they will run the Mission. Thus it can be imagined what will be that shape of Central Govt’s skill development projects in Tripura.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2015, July 15 launched the Skill India campaign on the occasion of the first World Youth Skills Day in view of opening a war against poverty in the country. The budget for skill development has also been increased as Jaitley in his budget allocated Rs 3,016 crore as against Rs 2,173 crore last year. He said under the next phase of Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE), the government will be spending Rs 2,200 crore. 

However, as part of the programme the Tripura government received a hefty fund and had taken up certain initiatives just for name-sake under the skill development training programme, which was said to meet the cry of youths especially the youths of the rural areas, but alas in these 2 years unemployment rate instead of decreasing it’s increasing  .

M Nagaraju said, “We work with several training partners and certifying agencies with an objective to train and employ youth in various industry sectors”. But in reality Tripura’s unemployment rate instead of decreasing it has increased upto 7 lakhs.