Maha govt spends meagre amount for ITI upgradation

The Maharashtra government has spent only Rs 167 crore on upgradation of 250 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) as against Rs 625 crore received for the same, the Comptroller and Auditor General has observed in its report for the year 2015-16.
Tabled in the state assembly on Friday, the report pointed out at inappropriate ways of functioning and non-utilisation of funds by the ITIs.
Despite being planned in year 2008, the upgradation of 250 ITIs is deficient with poor utilisation of funds where only Rs 167.27 crore have been spent in the last five to nine years as against Rs 625 crore received, the report stated.

It stated that 12 ITIs sanctioned during 2009-12 did not incur any expenditure till June 2016 as some of the institutes were operating from rented buildings, lack of space, non-affiliation of trades, and reluctance of Institute Management Committee (IMC) to implement Institute Development Plan (IDP).
"Also 56 ITIs sanctioned during 2007-12 incurred an expenditure of less than Rs 10 lakh up to June 2016 on upgradation," the report mentioned.
ITIs mainly work to provide skilled labour to the industry and upgradation of ITIs was planned in October 2007 to improve employment chances of graduates from vocational training system, making design and delivery of training more demand responsive.

Nine years down the line, the audit of 250 ITIs in Maharashtra shows that the upgradation was deficient, no criteria was laid down for identification of ITIs to be upgraded while the criteria laid down for selection of Industry Partner (IP) was not followed, says the report.

"None of the 250 ITIs applied for accreditation from National Accreditation Board (NAB) for Education and Training, leading to non-affiliation of new trades proposed in IDPs of these institutes," the CAG stated.
The National Implementation Cell of the Government of India submitted a report in May 2013 pointing out that the upgradation suffered due to principals holding charge of more than one ITI, frequent transfers of principals and vacant posts of instructors, it said.

For effective running of 250 ITIs under the upgradation programme, state government worked out a requirement of 2,299 instructors against which only 20 posts were filled up, the report has said.
The shortfall of instructors was made up through contractual appointments, CAG has noted in its report.