State to merge technical education and employment departments

The Orissa government has decided to merge the employment and technical training departments, currently functioning under two separate ministries, in order to bring synergy in efforts to promote employment opportunities for the youths in the state.

The director for technical education (DTE), at present, is working under the state industries department while Directorate of Employment is placed within Ministry of Labour and Employment. The DTE focuses on all kinds of technical education, while the employment directorate mainly deals with information synchronization between various employment exchanges inside the state.

The decision to carve out two departments and form a new one will streamline employment process, said Puspendra Singh Deo, minister of state for labour and employment.

“In many states and in central government also, these departments work under different ministries. But we have decided to make it one department so that the policy implementation will be streamlined,” he said.

The state cabinet has already taken the decision and the new department, which will bypass inter ministerial correspondences and other bureaucratic procedures for policy decisions, will be formed soon.

“But it has not been decided under which department it (the new directorate) will be working,” Deo said.

Orissa offers investment opportunities in the areas of mineral based industries food processing, tourism, fisheries, information technology and information technology enabled services and power generation along with ubiquitous steel and sponge iron productions.

The 50 steel companies that have inked MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state government have generated direct employment for 21,508 people so far besides creating indirect jobs for 52,448 others.

Out of 21,508 people engaged in the direct route, 14,217 are from within the state and the remaining 7,291 are from outside. In the indirect employment category, 38, 122 people are from the state and 14,326 persons have been sourced from other states.

Government sources hope some of the steel industry projects, key employment generator, will start production by the end of 2014.