GVMC is ready to open six of the eight livelihood centres to offer services to public as well as improve the employability of skilled workers in the city.
The centres at Anakapalle and Bheemunipatnam are unlikely to come up as the population there is below one lakh not meeting the parameters of the National Urban Livelihood Mission.
Two hundred workers have already been identified for the centre in Zone II and in the other zones also they are being identified.
However, the centres besides offering services of electricians, plumbers, painters etc will also be developed urban business centres to sell the products made by women of urban self-help groups (SHGs) and offer urban placement services and legal assistance.
Urban Community Development Project Director D. Panduranga Rao who visited Pune to see the working of such centres said they were started much before the mission began on co-operative model duly registering as societies. Under the NGO Self-Employees Market Association for Root-Level Trades (SMART), around 3,000 workers offer services. From five centres in 2007, it expanded to 15 in 2013. The NGO collects 5 per cent as contribution from the workers and it came to Rs.74 lakh in 2013, Mr. Panduranga Rao said.
The proposals for setting up the centres have been presented to the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) which expressed its satisfaction. Visakhapanam is the first city to send its proposals in the entire State though any civic body with more than one lakh population can make proposals, says Mr. Panduranga Rao.
The selected workers will be screened by principals of local polytechnic colleges and industrial training institutes (ITIs) to determine their skill. Their names will also be referred to the police to see whether they have any criminal record.
“Once they are selected for the centres, the quality of their services and their conduct should not affect the image of the corporation,” the Project Director said.
Now the proposals are to be cleared by a State-level committee headed by the Principal Secretary paving the way to release the Rs. 10 lakh central mission assistance for each of the centres. Buildings to locate the centres have already been identified.
