Siddaramaiah gets on job to boost skills

BENGALURU: In an effort to counter growing criticism about tardy growth of industries in state, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday proposed creation of a new department, skill development and livelihood department, for creation of employment opportunities and retention of skilled human resources and allocated '500 crores for the new entity in his 11th budget presented on Friday.

The proposed department, which would focus on skill development for unemployed youth and women, would help create a vast pool of trained human resources to support industrial growth. Besides, the CM proposed creation of a non-profit company - Invest Karnataka - to promote industries and establish exclusive women industrial parks in Ballari, Dharwad and Mysuru to encourage women entrepreneurs in a big way.

Mr Siddaramaiah said: “This department has been created with the sole motive of enhancing employment opportunities and bringing all skill development programmes under one roof which will be headed by me.”

He said with himself at the helm of this department would ensure better co-ordination among various departments which have launched various skill development related schemes. “Apart from this, this will also help look into aspects of conventional and unconventional modes of financing,” he said. Mr Siddaramaiah stated that the state government would rope in AWAKE to improve the skills of women entrepreneurs. “There will be a residential facility too to improve women's skills in the state in order to encourage them to become entrepreneurs in the days to come,” he said.

He proposed to establish four Centres of Excellence in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi and Dandeli in order to retain skilled personnel who pass out of technical institutions.

“These centres, opened in Government Tool and Technical Centres, will impart special training on focus areas like - product design and development, instrument design, robotics, reverse engineering, rapid photo typing laboratories and manufacturing," he added.

 Namma grama namma Rasthe for SC/ST habitats
The government has announced ambitious schemes to improve connectivity and lessen the qualitative disparity between rural and urban life in the state. A new Namma Grama Namma Rasthe scheme will see every Assembly constituency get 20 km of road to connect SC/ST habitats with the main roads.  

And while  Rural Development and Gram Swaraj  has been allotted  Rs 13,018 crore as a whole, as much as Rs 3609 crore  will be spent on rural roads alone.

A  multi-village water supply scheme to provide clean drinking water has been allotted '1980 crore and will include cleaning of borewells and setting up of water purification units, besides solar water pumping units in 100 gram panchayats. Heritage villages to showcase Karnataka’s past glory have also been planned through reconstruction of historical, cultural and famous spots at a cost of Rs 10 crore and Rs 25 crore will be used to develop infrastructure for holding of village shandies in 500 large village panchayats.

Responding to the new announcements, Prof Harish Ramaswamy of Karnataka University said he was disappointed.  “This is almost like Mr Modi's budget. Huge sums have been allotted for connecting rural roads and other schemes,but the question here is of  penetration of these programmes. If they were investing the same amount of money on the agrarian or education sector, it would have been fantastic. But it seems like the government wants to please everyone for no benefit to society,” he contended, adding that CM should have come out with innovative ideas.

Meanwhile,  PWD, which has received Rs 7922 crore, will develop a six lane road between Mysuru and Bengaluru at a cost of Rs 2400 crore now that  the Centre has given its consent for acquisition of the required land.  Kodagu district has been give Rs 50 crore for road repair, 2797 km will be upgraded as highways and major district roads will be developed over 1520 km at a cost of Rs 3500 crore.

PoS machines to ensure transparency in PDS
To bring transparency in the public distribution system(PDS), the state government has decided to install hand-held point of sales (PoS) machines in Udupi district on a pilot basis.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced in the budget that this was being done to ensure the distribution of the right quantity of food grains at the right price to beneficiaries. The process of accepting new applications for ration cards online and validating these applications by collecting the EPIC/ Aadhaar numbers, will ensure the benefits to genuine beneficiaries.

The government will built a Research and Development Centre at a cost of Rs 1 crore with Central grants. The government has earmarked Rs 2096 crore for the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department in 2016-17.