Govt scraps new skill centres in 3 BJP-ruled states
THE SKILL MINISTRY HAS SUSPENDED
NEW ALLOCATION OF CENTRES IN UTTAR PRADESH, HARYANA AND RAJASTHAN WHILE OTHER STATES INCLUDING MP ARE UNDER THE SCANNER
About 40% of the trainees enrolled in skill development centres in three BJP-ruled states — Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan — are ghost entries, as per the reports received by the Centre.
Following the reports, the Union skill ministry has suspended new allocation of centres in these states under the second phase of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY-2).
A huge number of centres are likely to face cancellation in these states, said the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry officials on condition of anonymity. Few other states including Madhya Pradesh are under the scanner where national skill training targets have been achieved hurriedly raising suspicion. However, allocation of franchise centres under PMKVY-2 will continue in other states, said officials.
The inquiry instituted by the ministry recently also found that these centres illegally outsourced training to third parties as against PMKVY’s mandate.
Irregularities also included many franchise centres being converted into coaching centres with PMKVY logo missing from their premises during surprise inspection recently.
“After we learnt about the irregularities, we stopped further allocation of franchise under PMKVY2 and are now working on new guidelines,” said the senior ministry official.
The franchise training centres were allowed to tie-up with other institutions for land, building and equipment and get into revenue sharing but not to outsource training to them. The National Skill Development Cooperation (NSDC) had shortlisted these centres under given set of criterion and these are only responsible for imparting skill sets under the given guidelines, the officials said.
The officials said training is under way under PMKVY-1 in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, but further allocation of centres has been stopped. Allocation of centres, however, is happening in other states .
Officials said the NSDC had set up 13,000 centres under PMKVY-1.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy, skill development and entrepreneurship minister, said, “We faced chalmany lenges as PMKVY was the first scheme. We have now totally revamped the scheme. PMKVY-2 is a robust, transparent and accountable scheme.” Employment is calculated on the basis of two separate surveys. One is the household survey by the NSSO and the other is establishment survey of the labour bureau. Most of the present debate on job creation is on the establishment survey for eight sectors covering industries with more than 10 workers. It is not a random sample like (in)
NSSO and there is problem with multipliers. It is a perception being given in the absence of good data. This perception is being created as large number of the workforce is in the unorganised sector. There has been a lot of underemployment and it has been a long-standing problem. Making perceptible dent in it will take time. I say if there are two or three people for the same job then there is underemployment. For instance, if you have a plumbing problem and two or three persons are coming to resolve it, then it is underemployment. Farm loan waiver is largely a political issue for the government. In Uttar Pradesh, it was an election promise and the waiver given was for small and marginal farmers. I think it is a balancing act for politics. The waiver can also create pervasive incentive for those who are paying back their loans on time. You have to look at annual figure of 7.1% growth. It is higher than what all critics (of demonetisation) said. I don’t think there was any major impact. There can be marginal one, which cannot be measured quantitatively. In the early 1990s when I said that we can grow at 7%, people thought I was crazy. In the present world, 7.1% is high. Yes, we want to grow at 10%.