New Delhi, Jun 27 (IANS): The Delhi Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to widen the annual family income criteria from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh for imparting vocational training to people belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities and handicapped in the national capital.

The Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, approved the Social Welfare Department's proposal to widen the annual family income criteria.

The Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minorities and Handicapped Financial and Development Corporation has been implementing a scheme from 2008 to impart job oriented vocational courses to persons belonging to the target groups, the government said in a statement.

The government decided to widen the income criteria as "the Corporation was unable to sponsor sufficient number of students to these two training institutes mainly because of the lower family income criteria".

"The training was imparted to develop their skills and knowledge in a particular trade with a view to make them self-reliant for wage employment as well as self-employment," it said.

The Delhi government has been providing funds for the implementation of this scheme as grant-in-aid and have been providing training through two government institutes -- Apparel Textiles Design Centre (ATDC) and National Small industries Corporation (NSIC) -- under the aegis of the Central government's Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, respectively.

To avail the scheme, the applicant should be a resident of Delhi, aged between 18 and 40 years.

"The candidates are selected on the basis of scrutiny of documents and interview," the Delhi government added.