Mysuru: To mark the World Youth Skills Day, Chief Minister Siddharamaiah today announced that the Day will also henceforth be called ‘CM’s Karnataka Skill Project’.

He was speaking after inaugurating the two-day ‘Kaushalya Mela’ (Vocational Skills Mela) and Job Mela organised jointly by the Karnataka Skill Development Corporation and the district administration, at Kalamandira, and said that it was the    aim of the Government to create 1.8 crore jobs by 2020.

“The Karnataka Skill Development Corporation is a new department created by the government to train youth and make them job-ready, empower them and to impart training in life skills,” he said.

According to Siddharamaiah, 1.60 lakh people had been trained under this programme last year and this year, 5 lakh youth have registered for training. The aim this year was to train 25,000 youths but already 34,700 had registered. Out of this 10,613 are SCs, 4,612 STs, 1,148 Minorities, 474 physically challenged and 17,916 belong to Backward Classes. There are 15,000 girls and 19,000 boys who have registered, he added.

With the aid of the Karnataka German Technology Training Institute and the other Industry and Trade Bodies like the FKCCI, skill training will be given to the youth to make them industry-ready. Once they are trained well, the youth can even seek jobs overseas with this kind of training, said Siddharamaiah and added that otherwise, they will not be fit for any jobs.

He distributed tool kits to the students of the Varuna ITI Government IIT  and another 1217 kits will be distributed to the remaining students from different taluks.

Massive response

The response to the “Kaushalya Mela was very huge as the boys and girls carrying certificates were found standing in queue to enter the exhibition area where four registration counters have been set up and there are 100 stalls with 76 companies participating. There are also ITI institutes that have set up stalls in the exhibiton.

People from Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Mandya and Kodagu districts have come with hopes of getting jobs.

CM Upset

Chief Minister Siddharamaiah was visible upset when he arrived at the Kala Mandira here this morning around 10.45 am. When he arrived neither the District-in-charge Minister Dr. Mahadevappa nor the MLA Vasu were present. As soon as he arrived, he was taken to the nearby mini theatre where an exhibition was set up.

Without realising that it was just an exhibition, the CM asked in a raised voice, “What are you people doing? Why there are not many people here? You know that Mysuru is my hometown and I wanted to have a big job mela. Where is Mahadevappa, where is Vasu?”

The officers Muralidhar Halappa and Sanjiv Kumar of Skill Development Corporation were at a loss of words by this sudden outburst. They tried to appease him by telling that it was just the exhibition area and registration and counselling centres had been set up and the response was really good. District in-charge Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa, MLA Vasu, Karnataka Skill Development Corporation Chairman Muralidhar Halappa, Additional Chief Secretary Sanjiv Kumar, Mayor M.J. Ravikumar, Legislative Council Deputy Chairman Marithibbe Gowda, MyLac Chairman H.A. Venkatesh, KEA Chairman Siddaraju, Zoo Authority Chairperson Mallige Veeresh, MLAs M.K. Somashekar, H.P. Manjunath. DC D. Randeep and others were present.