Eight months after launch, ₹12-crore skill centre in Bathinda yet to start operations

BATHINDA : The ₹12-crore MultiSkill Development Centre (MSDC) in the city, set up to train 1,800 youngsters in food processing, automobiles, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals, and banking and accounting was inaugurated on December 24, 2016, but is yet to train a single individual.

Authorities in-charge of the centre do not have a clear answer on not making use of the facilities.

There are two hostels as well — for 100 women and 200 men — built at a cost of ₹ 5 crore.

The government spent ₹6.5 crore on the construction of the building that the Public Works Department (PWD) had got constructed. Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had inaugurated the centre last year in December, ahead of Punjab assembly polls.

WHY THE DISUSE

When questioned on the issue, PWD sub-divisional officer Vishal Garg said, “The construction has been completed. we can hand over the building to the technical education department, that was to use the facility, within a week of being asked to do so.”

The training centre is on 35,000 square feet of land on the premises of industrial training centre on Bathinda – Mansa road.

Additional mission director, Punjab skill development mission, Ashok Prashar, said, “The Centre has beeallocated to Gram Tarang Employability Training Centre that hasn’t been able to start the centre due to some financial reasons.”

He added, “We have asked them to start the centre by the end of this month, otherwise we will be allocating this to some other private training provider.”

Punjab Skill Development Mission under the National Skill Development Mission of central government had set up the Centre to be run under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.