The Centre has released an amount of about seventy lakh rupees for a skill development programme being implemented in 34 districts in eight states affected by Left wing extremism.

A Ministry of Labour and Employment release said that so far proposals amounting to more than nine thousand lakh rupees have been received from Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Our correspondent reports the objective of the scheme is to create skill development infrastructure in these districts closer to the people by establishing one Industrial Training Institute and two Skill Development Centers in each district. It also aims to run demand driven vocational training courses both long term and short term.