Industrialisation key to removing poverty: PM

Under attack from the Left for its SEZ policy, the government today said it will retain focus on farm sector but will pursue policies for major industrialisation and those displaced will be rehabilitated.

"It is true that the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial economy has always been a difficult one... It is essential that we create new employment opportunities outside of agriculture," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in his address on Independence Day.

He said that the government was giving final shape to a National policy for Rehabilitation and Resettlement for those displaced by major projects. "Industrialisation offers new opportunities and hope, especially for people in rural areas displaced by agrarian change," he added.

But he said that it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that the displacement did not lead to impoverishment and those who lose land do not lose livelihood.

The government's policy on Special Economic Zones has been under fire from Left parties, which has accused industrial units of depriving farmers of their livelihood.

Asserting that poverty eradication was feasible through higher economic growth, the Prime Minister said: "If employment generation was the best weapon against poverty, then industrialisation is the most effective means to create new job opportunities." The government will pursue policies that would help the country's rapid industrialisation. However, this would require the first rate highways, railways, airports and power.

Besides this would also require skill upgradation. Government is launching a Mission on Vocational Education and Skill Development and open 1,600 new industrial training institutes and polytechnics.