The Union tourism ministry's ambitious project to give manners training to autorickshaw drivers has been discontinued after covering just 10% of the targeted number.
The Union tourism ministry's ambitious project to give manners training to autorickshaw drivers ahead of the Commonwealth Games later this year has been discontinued after covering just 10% of the targeted number.
The project, aimed at covering 8,000 auto drivers in the national capital, has been "temporarily" discontinued since January this year. No reason has been assigned for the move.
Replying to an application under the Right to Information Act, Delhi Institute of Hotel Management, one of the institutes which the tourism department had entrusted with the task of providing training, said the programme has been temporarily discontinued.
It said the last batch of auto drivers was trained between January 4 and 6, 2010.
The government has spent about Rs51 lakh in training 835 drivers. Under the scheme, the Haryana Institute of Public Administration was given an umbrella role to design the course
and impart training through three Institutes — the Delhi Institute of Hotel Management (DIHM), Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), and India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).
The course was planned by the tourism ministry in September 2009 under which 8,000 auto drivers were to be trained in spoken English, personality development, stress management, road safety, Commonwealth Games, and yoga, among other things.
Different ministries and civic agencies like the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Council, and the Delhi police were roped in for the training.
Delhi has an estimated 55,000 auto drivers.
The training was to be conducted in batches of 40 persons each and scheduled to be concluded just before the Games begin on October 3.
Shreshtha Vashisht had filed an RTI application asking the tourism ministry for details of the programme. The application
was then forwarded to IIPA, ITDC and DIHM for their responses.
The highest number, 385 drivers, were provided training at the IIPA at a total cost of about Rs40 lakh, the reply said.
ITDC imparted training to 193 of them in eight batches between October 26, 2009, and January 18, 2010, at a total cost of Rs4.34 lakh.
A total of 257 auto drivers were trained in nine batches between October 26, 2009, and January 6, 2010, by the DIHM at a total cost of Rs5.43 lakh, the reply said.
"The last batch conducted by the HIPA at IIPA, New Delhi, was from January 18-20, 2010," the reply by the HIPA read.
The tourism ministry has released about Rs51.50 lakh to the three institutes for conducting the programme. Under the module, a payment of Rs200 per trainee per diem was also provided to offset the wage losses.
"Government has spent a total of Rs50 lakh in training
about 800 auto drivers whereas other government-approved institutes such as the Institute of Driving Training and Research (IDTR) and Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) regularly provide similar training at less than one-tenth of this cost. The only plausible reason could be that initial costs were very high," said the RTI applicant.
"Discontinuing the scheme is a matter of concern when we have thousands of drivers listed with us who are waiting in queue for training. Authorities must probe this irregularity," said Rakesh Agarwal, secretary, Nyayabhoomi, an NGO working for the betterment of autorickshaw drivers.
Tourism ministry information officer Alok Deswal declined comment. Attempts to contact tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee failed.
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