BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has been funding generously for establishment of Rural Self- Employment Training Institute (RSETI) in every district, 14 districts are yet to start the training programme.
This is despite the fact that the MoRD has approved to start training programme in rented buildings for three years during which the districts should have their own training centres.
Although 12 districts have received a Central assistance to the tune of ` 50 lakh from MoRD for construction of RSETI buildings, construction works have not started due to non-allotment of land by the district administration.
The Centre is providing one time grant of ` 1 crore for each training institute for infrastructure development. It is the responsibility of the State Government to provide an acre of land free of cost to the sponsoring bank of the district for construction of building.
According to Panchayati Raj Department, 10 districts have not given permissive possession of the land identified for RSETI to the sponsoring banks. The districts are Angul, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Kandhamal, Koraput, Khurda, Malkangiri, Puri and Rayagada.
The objective of RSETI is to provide demand-driven training to poor youths of the rural areas to enhance their employability in the job market. As lakhs of youth are entering the job market every year without matching skills to the job, a majority of them end up losing the job because they are not suitable.
In 2009, the Centre decided to open RSETI on the lines of RUDSETI (rural development and self-employment training institute) in all the districts of the country to provide skilled upgradation training programmes in different trades to enhance employability of the rural poor and other economically disadvantaged groups.
Public sector banks have also been associated with this scheme to ensure credit linkage to the people who are trained by the RSETIs.
A recent review of the Centrally-sponsored programme revealed that State Bank of India is the sponsoring bank for RSETIs in 18 districts. Though permissive possession of land has been given and funds released for 12 districts, the training institutes have started operation only in five districts.
The Government decided to request the SBI to replace the RSETI director posted by the bank at Malkangiri for not initiating training programme even after two years of his posting there.
UCO Bank has started operation of the institutes in all the seven districts where it is the lead bank. This is despite the fact that possession of land has been given in two districts while funds for infrastructure development are released for three districts.
Although land has been allotted and funds released to Andhra Bank for setting up RSETI in Ganjam and Gajapati districts, the institute is yet to start in the Naxal- infested Gajapati district.