Bhubaneswar, Nov. 5: Youth Congress activists today showed black flags to Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) Giriraj Singh when he came here to attend a programme at the Central Tool Room and Training Centre.

The protesters showed the flags and shouted slogans against Singh before police removed them.

Yesterday, Singh had blamed former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's education policy, which he referred to as faulty, for the poor work skills among the country's youth. The comment sparked off the protests.

Later, speaking at the Central Tool Room and Training Centre event, Singh called upon the technical institutions across the state to develop innovative courses for imparting skills to school dropouts.

Although 93 per cent children enrol in primary schools, the numbers drop to 27 per cent by the time they reach matriculation, he said.

"The mushrooming engineering colleges, polytechnics as well as the central tool room and training centres must focus on providing skill training to these students and make them employable," said Singh.

These institutes must also explore better industry links to engage these students as entrepreneurs, he suggested while directing the authorities at the centre to write to all government schools about the courses it was able to provide to the students.

A presentation by the centre authorities indicated that the number of school dropouts taking up skill-based courses at the institute had dropped over the years. While 130 students had taken training in 2013-14 and 131 were trained in 2014-15, barely 11 students have enrolled for the year 2015-16.

Saying that Odisha, Bihar and Bengal lacked the "character" for entrepreneurship, Singh said the farmers in these sates would even go to the extent of selling their land to arrange money for job of a peon. "The state must try to come out with innovative entrepreneurship ideas in agro-based and aroma-based products such as kewra," he said. Expressing concern over the lack of interest among youth for agriculture, Singh said the present day youth was least interested in agriculture.

"They do not understand that at the end of the day we all need food - be it vegetables, livestock, cereals or paddy. We cannot eat microchips for survival. We need more young people as entrepreneurs in the agriculture industry," he said.