Centre to set up 10,000 ITIs in rural areas

Union Minister of State for Planning V Narayanasamy on Monday stated that the Centre would set up 10,000 Industrial Training Institutes (Itis) in rural areas across the country for imparting technical training to unemployed youths.Inaugurating the first national convention of rural institutes, organised by the National Council of Rural Institutes here on Monday, the Union Minister stated that the government stresses on expanding and improving educational infrastructure facilIties in the rural areas by opening more institutes and universIties.

He said that the government has plans to set up one rural varsity in each backward and tribal belt areas across the country. The government would also establish 25,000 schools in rural areas under the public-private partnership, he explained.He said the ambItious Bharat Nirman programme launched by the Centre with an outlay of Rs one-lakh-crore has helped in containing migration of rural people to urban areas to a certain extent besides creating better infrastructure facilIties in villages.He expressed serious concern over the misappropriation of funds released by the Centre for various other activIties by the state governments.