Bengal building bridges between skilled migrants and industries

Kolkata/Midnapore: To help migrant workers find employment at home, the Bengal government has directed district officials to co-ordinate with local industries.
“Several districts have already stepped up to the need and begun talks with respective district chambers of commerce and industries. Their labour wings have been asked to help migrant workers find employment,” state labour and law minister Moloy Ghatak said.
Purulia, for one, has been very proactive in building a bridge between job seekers and employers.ADM (zilla parishad) Akanksha Bhaskar said a website — titled Vishwakarma — was recently floated by DM Rahul Majumder to help migrant workers.
The ADM said they were helping those with various skill sets, for which talks had been held with industry majors like L&T. She said L&T had assured the district administration that it would hire several hundred. “We are si-mply trying to work as a bridge between job seekers and employers just like several private portals do. We are gauging the manpower need of industries here,” she said.
Purulia has around 36,000 skilled migrant workers. Prospective employers have been asked to register on the new portal and provide details of their skilled manpower needs. “We are also helping workers in various blocks to enrol on the site, as many of them are not computer-savvy. They need to provide details of their fields of experience and contact numbers,” the ADM added.
In West Midnapore, DM Rashmi Kamal has also taken an initiative to employ over 1,500 migrant workers. She said she was trying to find out about vacancies in various companies in Kharagpur and Jhargram industrial belt. Once the figures are available, it will be on display on the district website, officials said and added that already 21 companies had shown interest.