UP to promote fashion technology

The UP government has decided to introduce fashion technology in a big way in 17 industrial training institutes (ITI) in the state.

The government has also sanctioned Rs 1.20 crore for the purpose during the current fiscal.

The government has also given approval to set up a sports college exclusively for women at Sefai, the hometown of chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, in Etawah district. This will be the third sports college in the state, with the ones in Lucknow and Meerut already there.

These issues were decided in the meeting of the state cabinet here today. A sum of Rs 16.63 crore has been sanctioned for the first women sports college in the state, which is targeted to be completed in next two years.

Chief secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpayee said all the governments had decided to impart training in fashion technology in view of the growing job prospects and fashion industry which was growing at a fast rate in north India and in the country as a whole. FT trade will be introduced in 17 ITIs of UP, from the current academic session.

He said one instructor would be appointed in each of the ITIs to teach FT to the students and an additional budget of Rs 1.29 crore has been sanctioned for the course.

At present, there are ITIs at Meerut, Agra, Bareilly, Moradabad, Jhansi, Banda, Kanpur, Faizabad,Gonda, Azamgarh,Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Mirzapur, Basti, Allahabad and Lucknow.

The cabinet also approved a proposal to set up a `Staff Training and Research Centre' at ITI, Lucknow for training of the state employees. A sum of Rs 4.12 crore to set up the centre, where 50 posts would be created.

In another decision, the state government amended the Act to relax the age for promotion of Anganwari employees to senior Sevika from the present 45 yrs to 50 yrs. The relaxation will benefit about 300 Anganwari employees.

In another decision the cabinet approved the compounding scheme in place of trade tax for the mustard oil units producing mustard oil and Khali (oil cake) for the current fiscal, which has been hiked by 30 per cent this year. The new compounding system would only be implemented if the revenue generated by it crosses Rs 7.50 crore in the current fiscal.

At present, there are 624 mustard oil units in UP. With the compounding scheme the government expects to mop up an additional revenue of Rs 4 crore in 2006-07.

In 2005-06, UP collected Rs 5.73 crore tax on mustard oil and oil cakes.