New Delhi : Disgruntled representatives of skill training partners and franchisee centres from across the country stormed into the office of union ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship on Wednesday and shouted slogans and staged sit-in inside the ministry office for over an hour.
The protesters carrying banners and placards laid siege to the ministry’s office at the Shivaji Stadium annexe, alleging large-scale irregularities involving discrimination in seats allocation and corruption under flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana – PMKVY 2.0. They shared that, only influential training partners were being allocated training targets whereas they were left out.
Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy was out of New Delhi, meeting Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in Raipur, at the time of the protest.
Already reeling under heavy debt as they set up their centres investing somewhere between Rs5-50 lakhs. Many protesters whom spoke to threatened to commit suicide, saying they were neck-deep in debt since they had invested heavily in setting up such training centres by taking loans and could not repay them as they were not allocated seats.
According to senior officials, the government has suspended further allocation under the skilling scheme PMKVY 2.0 in three states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, after finding irregularities like fraudulent enrollment of ghost candidates by the franchisee skill centres.
The National Skill Development Corporation has been tasked with implementing the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). “We are not shutting down all franchisees, but only the bad ones. There are some good franchisees whom we will engage as direct training partners. So eventually, franchisee system will go. A formal decision to this effect has been taken by the ministry and will be announced soon,” NSDC MD and CEO Manish Kumar said.
He refuted allegations about discrimination in allocation of seats or skilling targets, saying these were being levelled by disgruntled people who have been identified as bad players.
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