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THE Prakasam district administration is laying much emphasis on imparting training to the youth to help them find employment.
K. Devanand, who assumed charge as District Collector on June 4, expressed happiness over the rapid strides made by the district in the irrigation and industrial sectors. The government is taking care of all sections of society, and farmers are able to raise crops as the district received normal rainfall during the past three years, he said.
But the youth seem to be neglected. Although the government launched several employment generation schemes such as the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) for educated unemployed youth, they did not yield the desired results. Several people were sanctioned bank loans in the past few years, but there are no units on the ground.
As the rate of recovery of loans was poor, banks became reluctant to lend.
In such a situation, Devanand felt the need to overhaul the employment generation programme. He said an action plan was being drawn up to find out the aptitude of the youth and develop their skills so that they could make proper use of bank loans and employ themselves gainfully.
Exhorting the youth to realise the new employment opportunities in the present era of liberalisation, he said the days of seeking a low-grade job in a government organisation were gone.
The sky is the limit for employment in the private sector only if the youth can hone their skills, improve their abilities and achieve excellence to make a mark in the market. "Skills, abilities and excellence should, in fact, become the mantra for the youth now," he said.
Arrangements were being made to train 20,000 youth at a cost of Rs.3 crore so that they could find employment in the district every year, he said. The administration is looking for institutes and resource persons to impart quality training in trades such as driving, motor mechanism, electrical works and electronics.
He said Hyderabad alone would need 50,000 drivers in the next five years. There is immense scope for employment as shop assistants, for which the youth need to learn basic English and customer relations.
Banks would be asked to lend money to trained youth so that they could start some small business. The Collector said he would not like to give any targets to the banks in this regard. They should finance all persons found eligible for assistance.
M. Venkateswara Rao
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