Though the State Government received clapping for providing over 28,000 new jobs at a mega fair organised early this year, the figure from the mining sector—considered as mainstay for Jharkhand’s economy—has not been encouraging.
Chief Secretary Sudhir Tripathi expressing worries over limited offer having come during the fair from the sector underlined the need of skilling to keep a pace with changing technology.
“Being a mineral-rich State mining and quarrying industry holds immense importance for us. But what I have learnt that job offered is nearly zero in Jharkhand in recent times in this sector. We have certain aspirations and the goal is to become mining capital of the country. To achieve that we need skilled manpower to be provided to our mines and time has come that even PSUs collaborate with universities to setup centres here,” said the Chief Secretary, addressing a workshop ‘Skilling Excellence in Mining Sector’ organised by Skill Development Mission on Thursday.
As per inputs, the sector needs over 70,000 people in the next five years. Higher Education and Skill Development Secretary Ajoy Kumar Singh said that the opportunity can be a contributing factor in achieving one lakh new jobs promise made by Chief Minister Raghubar Das very recently.
“We have started working in that direction. What I see that it would be a great achievement even if 5,000 persons are employed in the mining sector. It would be unfortunate and disappointing for the sector if the people of the State are not benefitted out of their own resources,” said he, adding the corporate houses in collaboration with the Government can setup centres of skill developments in the State and hinted that one such ‘Centre of Excellence’ may come up at Hehal in Ranchi.
Industry Secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal mentioning about policy decisions taken in the field of mining both at the Centre and State levels, said that besides mineral excavation, lots of scope for job creation had also come up in exploration segment. “Only six per cent of the geographical area of the country has been explored for mining as of now. But with total transparency coming in mineral block allocation through auctioning and new exploration policy in place, massive exploration exercise is going to take place.
“All these developments bring importance to skilling,” said Barnwal.
He also added that minor mineral policy formulated by the State Government was also going to open door for mass level employment generation along with the Centre’s decision to open coal sector for private players for commercial mining.
Also present on the occasion was Mission Director of Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society Ravi Ranjan, CEO Amar Jha, Kroehn Christopher of TAFE, Australia along with representatives from BCCL, CCL and IIT-ISM, Dhanbad.