Chidambaram takes a dig at distribution of freebies

‘Stress should be on creating skilled manpower’

Apparently taking a dig at distribution of freebies such as grinders and mixies by the Jayalalithaa government, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said the real social and economic revolutions lay in producing skilled manpower.

Addressing after launching the Aegis Experience Centre at Sakkanthi near here on Thursday, he said people would have been happy, if they had been distributed ‘aattu kal (grinders) and ‘ammi kal’ (mixies) but “I have not come here to say whether it was good.”

The centre established by the SR Group would bring about changes and development in the lives of families of backward classes, Dalits and landless poor, who remained suppressed for hundreds of years and pave way for a social revolution, Mr.Chidambaram believed.

Many such centres were established in the district, he said, adding the training centres established by Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Pandiyan Grama Bank at Okkur and Amaravathiputhur had produced skilled manpower and enabled hundreds of youths to get employment.

Not inferior Commending the Aegis Limited, the global outsourcing and technology services company, wholly owned by SR Group, for establishing the centre in this remote village, Mr.Chidambaram said the centre was in no way inferior to centres established by Aegis in metro cities such as Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.

The fully air-conditioned centre had world class facilities to train 250 candidates with placement guarantee, he said.

Politics and political festivities apart, this centre, in the next one and a half years would provide employment to hundreds of youths in the region and the day when he heard that all of them got employment would be the real independence day, Mr. Chidambaram said.