Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises K H Muniyappa will lay the foundation stone for a Rs 100-crore Training and Research Centre (Tool Room) here on February 22.
Announcing this at a press meet here today, Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy said the Puducherry government had earmarked a ten-acre site for the project.
"Around 10,000 youths would undergo training in the centre every year and these technically qualified and trained youths would get jobs in industries and reduce the problem of unemployment," he said.
The Centre had sanctioned eight such centres in different states, and Puducherry was also covered under the scheme.
Narayanasamy said a super speciality hospital would come up in Karaikal at an investment of Rs 100 crore provided by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily would visit Karaikal in the next few days to the lay foundation of the new facility on the Government Hospital precincts there. ONGC would spend Rs 45 crore in the first phase. Specialists from JIPMER would be utilised for manning the hospital, he said.
The Union Tourism Ministry had released Rs 50 crore for Puducherry to develop tourism related projects including setting up of a research centre at Arikamedu, situated on the backwaters in Ariyankuppam, to bring to focus the village's historical, archaeological and cultural features.
Narayanasamy accused Chief Minister N Rangasamy of not taking firm steps to procure funds from the Centre to strengthen the AFT mill owned by Puducherry government, although a report seeking Rs 500 crore for rehabilitation had been sent by the government to the Union Home Minister.
Narayanasamy, representing Puducherry in the Lok Sabha, said he had earmarked Rs 14 crore of Rs 19 crore sanctioned under MP Local Area Development Fund for provision of amenities in rural areas and also betterment of the health of children. Work relating to these projects was in progress in four regions of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe, and Yanam.
The intervention became necessary as the Puducherry government had let down the rural development department and panchayats without sanctioning funds for the schemes, he said.
