SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma called upon the youth of the state not to remain confined in the comfort of the reservation but to gear up to acquire the competitive spirit.
Recalling his late father Purno Sangma’s words that “tribals will grow and open up when we go beyond reservation,” Conrad said, “It is time that youngsters should start competing and one day go beyond reservation.”
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the State Skills Competition on Thursday at U Soso Tham Auditorium, Conrad said the energy of the youth has to be channelized to change the future of the country and the state.
According to him, skills competition should be held and should have competition for entrepreneurship and business plans even as he maintained, ‘Competition is healthy.’
He stated that skilling was important for the development of the country with an ultimate goal for providing employment to the youth as well as contribute to the state and the country.
Additional Chief Secretary, M.S. Rao informed 140 participants who took part in six skills competition- automobile technology, carpentry, electrical installation, cooking, fashion technology and bakery.
He pointed out there were two major projects in the state. One is the human development project which is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the youth training under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
“Under the project, we intend to train about 45, 000 youth in various trades for wage employment as well as self employment. The first phase of training for 7000 youth is already underway and Don Bosco Technical School is conducting this training programme,” Rao said.
He informed that the state government had received the union government’s approval for training 33,000 youth under the PMKVY.
The ADB project is administered by the Meghalaya State Skills Development Society and the PMKVY programme is administered by the Directorate of Employment and Craftsman Training.
“On the skills front, a lot of activities are happening,” Rao said.
Winners from the state skill competition will take part at the regional level to be held at Bangalore; from there the winners will move to the nationals. The winners of the national level will take part at Kazan, Russia at the World Skills Competition in 2019.