State govt to set up Model Career Centres across Bengal

SOUMITRA NANDI | MP | 19 March 2018 | Kolkata: In a significant stride towards facilitating procurement of jobs for the youths, the state government has decided to come up with Model Career Centres (MCC) across the state. The first such Centre will be inaugurated by state Labour minister Moloy Ghatak at Salt Lake on March 26. 

"The main job of the MCCs will be to keep in constant touch with the people who have registered their names in the employment bank of the state government and counsel them in pursuing the right career path which will make them employable," Ghatak said.

The minister added that such MCCs will be gradually set up at all places in the state, wherever there are employment exchanges. "There are 66 such employment exchanges. Availability of space for developing the infrastructure is a problem. So, we will first set up MCCs in places where there is space available," a senior official of the Labour department said.

Elaborating on the role of the MCC, the official said that the job of the Centre will be to find out the interest area of a particular person and accordingly guide them about several vocational and skill development training, that are on offer by the government.

"The people are often confused about the career that they should pursue to become employable. The centre will cater to this issue as all government schemes, courses and skill training that are offered by the various departments, will be available under a single umbrella at the MCCs," the official said.

It may be mentioned that generation of jobs has been the focus of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state has been able to generate 8.92 lakh jobs, both in the government and private sectors since 2011, after the Trinamool Congress government took over, ending 34 years of Left Front rule in Bengal.

Bengal has become the best performing state, both in terms of allotting jobs and utilising funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

According to statistics recently provided in Rajya Sabha by the minister of state for Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav, Bengal has generated more than 28.21 crore work days under the scheme so far in 2017-18 and spent more than Rs 7,335.31 crore for it.