Noting that private industries have not been following the recommendations of the Sarojini Mahishi Committee report on providing employment to locals, Minister for Large, Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development R.V. Deshpande said that industries should reserve some jobs for locals in higher echelons.
He was speaking to presspersons after holding a meeting with the officials of Industries, Mining and Revenue department here on Saturday. Mr. Deshpande told the District Industries Centre (DIC) to direct industries to reserve jobs for locals.
“Industries sign agreements with DIC promising to provide jobs to eligible local people. However, most of them do not comply with the terms of agreement while recruiting,” he said. He directed Regional Commissioner Harsh Gupta and Deputy Commissioner R. Venkateshkumar to monitor this strictly.
“The district administration should also conduct single window agency review meeting every month. We should ensure that at least one member of a family that loses land for a project or industry would get a job,” he said.
He also called upon the industries for stepping up their activities under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to lend a helping hand through identifying the requirements of local people.
To a question, Mr. Deshpande said that the work on Kalaburagi airport had picked up and would hopefully be completed by February 2018.
“Recently, the State government provided ₹6.5 crore for taking up infrastructure work at the airport. It will release another ₹5.5 crore by next week. We have to discuss about the cost escalation for airport in the Cabinet,” he said.
He added that the State government would also approach the Civil Aviation Ministry for extending the Union government’s ambitious UDAN scheme to Kalaburagi airport.
