Maharashtra: PM Modi to launch 511 rural skill development centres

File photo/AFP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 511 rural skill development centres in the name of late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan in Maharashtra on Thursday via video conferencing.

These centres are being established across 34 rural districts of Maharashtra, as per an official statement. They will conduct skill development training programmes across various sectors to provide employment opportunities to the rural youth, it said. "Each centre will train about 100 youngsters in at least two vocational courses. The training is being provided by empanelled industry partners and agencies under the National Skill Development Council," the statement said.

The establishment of these centres will help the region attain significant strides towards developing a more competent and skilled manpower, it added. Mahajan was a leading national leader of the BJP. He died in 2006 at the age of 56.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader Clyde Crasto took a dig at Union Minister Piyush Goyal over his remarks against the NCP chief Sharad Pawar, stating that he is trying to "toe the line" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Wednesday, Union Minister Piyush Goyal criticised Sharad Pawar's remark on India's stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict, stating that it is very disturbing when a senior leader like Sharad Pawar makes preposterous statements on India's stand on a terror attack in Israel.

"It is very disturbing when a senior leader like Sharad Pawar makes preposterous statements on India's stand on a terror attack in Israel. The menace of terrorism has to be condemned in all forms, in any part of the world. It is a pity that a person who has been India's Defence Minister as well as a Chief Minister many times has such a casual view on issues relating to terror...This rotten mindset has to stop. I hope Pawar ji at least now, thinks of the nation first," Goyal said in an 'X' post.

The statement came after the NCP Chief said that the role of former Prime Ministers of India was "to help Palestine".

Also read: He's only trying to toe line of BJP: NCP leader Clyde Crasto's jibe at Goyal

"Piyush Goyal is a minister in the Central government, and he needs to do a bit of homework because he doesn't seem to know what his fellow ministers and cabinet colleagues have stated on Palestine. He needs to go back into history and also do a bit of study because former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee also supported the cause of Palestine. Vajpayee spoke about the Palestinian land and how Israel has been dealing with Palestine and it has been India's stand to support the people of Palestine", Crasto said.

"He should also go back and read what our EAM Dr S Jaishankar had said. He has spoken on the call for the creation of a separate sovereign Palestine state. Just bypassing any kind of statements and calling out Sharad Pawar... I think it just shows how weak his knowledge is, and how he's only trying to toe the line of BJP," he added.

While addressing a public gathering of party workers in Mumbai, NCP supremo Pawar said, "The role of Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was to help Palestine. For the first time, the Prime Minister of this country took the role of Israel. The stand of the NCP should be clear. We stand by the people who originally belonged to that land". (With inputs from agencies)