Tata Motors selects first trainees from Singur

Kolkata, Jan 4: In a major step towards its much acclaimed corporate social responsibility, Tata Motors today announced selection of a group of eleven villagers of Singur as "trainees" for an extensive six-month course in the company.

The trainees, who had already attended the government-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI) courses, have been picked up from among 21 candidates, who responded to Tata Motors' initiative and appeared for a written test and subsequent interview on December 25 at Singur.

The candidates had earlier registered with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) camp office in Singur, company sources here today informed.

Announcing that Tata Motors planned to hold another round of tests for fresh registration of ITI trained local candidates, the sources said "eligible candidates" from around the the Singur Project area could now register their names.

During the half-yearly intensive training provided by the company, the eleven new trainees would cover various disciplines related to their trades. Tata Motors would provide them with hostel facilities and pay a monthly stipend during the next six months.

On successful completion of the training programme,they would be eligible for employment in the Small Car project in Singur, the sources confirmed.

Morever, the ten unsuccessful candidates, who could not qualify in the December 25 examination, would be trained to help enhance their employability.

Claiming that this initiative was the "beginning of Tata Motors' comprehensive community development programme for Singur", the sources said the programme was primarily aimed at providing suitable training to improve their employability and create opportunities for self employment besides training local womenfolk through different cooperative societies and motivate them to produce items which could be used in the Tata Motors plant or the vendor plants.

UNI