The Union Rural Development Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, has asked Shri Dharmasthala Education Trust to take over 527 R-SETIs’ management in the country.

Speaking at the 30-year celebrations of the Shri Kshetra Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) at Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district on Friday, the Minister said the Ministry has set up 527 R-SETIs (rural self-employment training institutes) in the country in the past one-and-half years. But he is not happy with their performance.

He attributed lack of interest by some banks, which are partners in this programme, for the poor performance of these R-SETIs. Only 16 per cent of these R-SETIs are doing well. He requested Dr D. Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala and Chairman of the RUDSETI (rural development and self-employment training institute), Dharmasthala, to take them over. The RUDSETI model, run by the Dharmasthala Trust, is doing well in the country, he said.

Each of these R-SETIs get Rs 1 crore as grant, and the State Governments allocate one acre of land to them free-of-cost. The lead banks in the districts provide manpower to them. Placing the proposal before Dr Hegde, he said all the banks will accept the authority of Dharmasthala in running R-SETIs.

Replying to this, Dr Hegde said that he is ready to accept this proposal.

This will be done through the monitoring cell of RUDSETI. He said that when the Government decided to start R-SETIs one-and-half years ago, RUDSETI was instrumental in training the trainers for R-SETIs. However, the support of the Union Ministry of Rural Development is essential for this, he added.

> vinayakaj@thehindu.co.in

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