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With higher allocations in store for skill upgradation in the 12th Plan, a Labour Ministry document shows that only 22.43 per cent of the funds released for modernising Industrial Training Institutes through PPPs have been utilised.
States used only Rs 531.80 crore of the Rs 3,067.50 crore released for the upgradation of 1,396 ITIs through public-private partnerships (PPPs), says the document, adding that the performance is not uniform.
The funds were released from 2007-08 to 2011-12. So far, only 1,227 institutes have been covered, it said.
Among the larger States, Madhya Pradesh recorded the poorest utilisation at 5.54 per cent of the total Rs 18,500 lakh released till September 9, this year.
The performance of Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan was ‘below average’. Bihar used only 10.89 per cent of the Rs 3,250 lakh released for upgradation of 13 institutes.
The scheme, with a total outlay of Rs 3,550 crore, came to an end in March 2012.
Centres of Excellence
In another World-Bank aided scheme to turn 400 ITIs into ‘centres of excellence’, only Rs 1,081 crore of the total outlay of Rs 1,581 crore project was utilised. The scheme will close in December 2012.
The World Bank contributed Rs 1,231 crore for the Vocational Training Improvement Project, which began in November 2007, of which Rs 1,251.68 crore (including Rs 35 crore States’ share) had been released by the Centre till August 2012. Expressing concern over the tardy utilisation of funds, the Labour Ministry has put the ball in the States’ court. “There are large number vacancies of prinicipals and instructors in ITIs. Some States have created posts, but filling them up is taking time,” says the document, released at the State Labour Ministers’ recent meet.
Even in case where States have appointed contract faculty pending regular appointments, the salaries are very low, the document noted.
Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge appealed to States for co-operation to meet target of imparting skills to 10 crore people in the next 10 years.
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