ITIS given clearance despite poor infra, says House panel

FINDING Report states equipment flaws were overlooked to allow the institutes avail of funds

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIS) were given clearances to provide critical training under the Skill India programme despite having inadequate infrastructure and facilities, a parliamentary panel on labour noted in its report.

The panel found a slew of irregularities — from two ITIS operating from the same address to institutes without finished buildings to deficiencies in machinery and equipment — that were bypassed to allow these institutes to get funds for training.

“The trainees from these institutes with poor level of skills are not as per the industry standards,” the House panel on labour said in its January 4 report, a copy of which was accessed by Hindustan Times.

There are 13,353 ITIS in India — 2,152 government and 11,201 private — with a total capacity of training 21.94 lakh students.

The parliamentary panel also pulled up the Quality Council of

India (QCI), a non-profit autonomous society set up by the Centre for industrial accreditation. “The QCI has not followed the process in right earnest and these derelictions were found during inspection,” the panel said, taking exception to “serious lapses” committed by the QCI and seeking corrective measures.

“QCI had accredited about 6,729 ITIS. The committee is concerned to note that, while on one

hand during the period 1950-2012, 6,624 ITIS were set up, the QCI in four years between 2012 and 2016 accredited 6,729 ITIS. But these could not function in the desired manner,” the panel said.

This is not the first time the QCI has been criticised. A study by the Indian Institute of Public Administration that pointed out the QCI’S alleged lapses was sent last October to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for “appropriate action” against the body.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Skill India scheme in June 2015 with an aim to tap into India’s demographic dividend and combat rising unemployment.

Since then, the government has merged the vocational training programmes with schemes such as MGNREGA and the construction of roads and houses. The government has also linked entrepreneurship to the Skill India scheme, named after Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

The government had arranged an interest-free loan of ₹2.50 crore per ITI in public private partnership scheme and so far released ₹2,313.74 of it. In the 2017-18 budget, the Centre had allocated ₹3,016 crore for skill schemes.

The skill development ministry informed the parliamentary panel that it was reviewing existing civil infrastructure norms and affiliation procedures for setting up new ITIS in the future.