Guwahati, Feb. 4: Pradyut Bordoloi, adviser to Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, today accused Union skill development minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy of trying to take credit for the state government's efforts to set up skill development centres in all blocks of the state.
Rudy, who was on a daylong visit to the city yesterday, said the Centre would set up skill development centres across the region from next month. He said his ministry would also establish Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in districts that have been newly formed or in those districts that do not have facilities to develop technical skills.
"I had submitted similar projects to Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal in August, 2014. Back then, Sonowal was holding the skill development portfolio. However, the Modi government cold shouldered my project. Now when the Assembly election is around the corner in the state, Rudy announced a similar project by packaging it differently. Such a development is evidence of the Narendra Modi government's constant efforts to mislead the people of Assam," said Bordoloi, who was an industry minister in the Tarun Gogoi cabinet till 2014.
Bordoloi, who was speaking to reporters at the Assembly secretariat here, said he had personally submitted the state government's project, named Multi Disciplinary Skills Development Programme, to Sonowal in New Delhi in August 2014.
He said though the Union minister was initially very enthusiastic about the project, he did not take any action to implement is later.
"The Union ministry did not even send the acknowledgement receipt for our proposal. Yesterday, Rudy went to the extent of saying that while other states of the country had submitted their skill development projects as soon as the Centre wanted them, Assam had submitted the same only two months ago. This is a blatant lie by the BJP minister," Bordoloi alleged.
Rudy yesterday urged the industry to expose the youth in the region to a global scenario, preparing them for jobs in the country and abroad.
Bordoloi, however, claimed that the government's programme on skill development had included everything that Rudy mentioned yesterday.
On the skill development initiatives for the Northeast, Rudy had said Assam had delayed preparation of the convergent plan.
BJP stand
The Assam BJP today accused the Congress of bringing disrepute to the state by putting up hoardings with cartoons ridiculing Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit to the state to inaugurate the SAG here tomorrow.
In a statement today, the state unit of the BJP said, "By depicting the Prime Minister of the country in the hoardings throughout the city, the Assam PCC has embarrassed the people of the state in front of the sportspersons and officials/representatives from the participating countries of the South Asian Games."
