A day after Punjab Technical Education and Employment Generation Minister Charanjit Singh Channi claimed that the Congress Government would start four Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) from the current academic session, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday maintained that all these four ITIs were started during the tenure of the previous SAD-BJP Government and now the Congress Government is trying to take credit for the same.
Dubbing Channi’s claim as “false, shrewd and misleading”, Tinu said that all these institutes were conceived by the previous government, but the present government had arbitrarily shelved the plan for over two and half years and now has just announced their revival but nothing has been done on the ground.
“Moreover, each ITI was to have 12 trades but now the number of trades has been revised to two to three,” he said.
Tinu said that before making the announcement, Channi should have offered a public apology for having failed to immediately start all the four ITIs after having given an assurance on the floor of the Punjab Assembly in 2017 itself that these ITIs would become functional within six months.
Also he should regret in no uncertain terms that he is starting these with only couple of trades and hold a promise that within six months, ten more trades would added to each these ITIs, he said.
Tinu was shocked to learn that the teachers and staff posts for these ITIs are yet to be sanctioned, asking how the Minister would ensure starting of current academic session.