Four ITIs in Orissa to declare Centre of Excellence - Sahu

Bhubaneswar, July 14: Four Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in Orissa will be upgraded to centre of excellence with the assistance from the World Bank during 2006-2007.

Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Chandra Sekhar Sahu told newsmen here that the centre had already identified ITIs at Berhampur, Balasore, Hirakud and Talcher to be among the 100 ITIs in the country to be upgraded into the centre of excellence in a particular sector.

Last year the centre had selected the ITI at Cuttack and Rourkela to be the centre of excellence.

Mr Sahu said while the ITI at Berhampur would be selected for the Automobile sector, Balasore ITI would have the centre of excellence for electrical and the Hirakud ITI would be converted into centre of excellence for instrumentation.

The ITI at Talcher would be upgraded to centre of excellence in Production and Manufacturing.All these four ITIs,the Union Minister said would receive an assistance of Rs.3 crores each for upgrading the centre.

This apart, the ITI at Puri and Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district would be taken up for infrastructure development.A decision in this regard would be taken shortly,the Union Minister said.

. Mr Sahu reiterated that the Indian Institute of Science centre would be established in Bhubaneswar as desired by the centre. He said during his discussion with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,the later had promised that the centre would be set up in Orissa. The Union Minister said Orissa would have a major share in the Backward Regional Development Fund Scheme.The Orissa congress delegation during its meeting with the Prime Minister had apprised that being backward, at least 20 districts in the state should be covered under the scheme, Mr Sahu said.

He announced that the long standing demand of opening of a sub- regional office of the Employees Provident Fund organisation would start functioning in Keonjhar shortly. A communication in this regard had already been sent to the Central Provident Fund Commissioner from the Ministry.

UNI