Jammu, Jan 21 (PTI) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has flagged poor implementation of the livelihood mission 'Himayat' in Jammu and Kashmir and said only 4,494 aspirants were given skill training under the scheme as against a target of 53,547 between 2016-19.

In its latest report, the federal auditor said Rs 134.84 crore has been spent from the sanctioned amount of Rs 237.74 crore between 2016 and 2019.

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"A target number of 53,547 youth were to be trained during the period from 2016 to 2019, the achievement was only 4,494 (8 per cent). Further, out of a total of 4,494 youth trained, only 732 youth were placed in jobs during the period," it stated.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development launched the 'Himayat' mission, which subsequently functioned as a separate vertical under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana for the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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The training, both residential and non-residential, was to be imparted for courses on computer-oriented skills, soft skills, communication skills in English as well as technical skills, it said.

Though during the years 2016-17 and 2017-18, only 123 youth were trained, no placements thereof were made during these years, the report said.

According to the report, 9,200 was set as the target number of trainees to be skilled and provided employment in 2016-17 at a sanctioned amount of Rs 46.72 crore. No one was trained or employed but an amount of Rs 30.40 crore, or 60 per cent of the sanctioned amount, was spent without achieving desired results, it said.

In 2017-18, against a target of 18,352 number of trainees to be skilled and employed at a sanctioned amount of Rs 60.10 crore, only 123 were trained and no one was employed even after spending Rs 28.02 crore.

In 2018-2019, as many as 4,371 trainees were skilled and 732 were employed at an expenditure of Rs 76.42 crore, or 43 per cent of the sanctioned amount. The target was to provide skill training to 25,995 youth.

During the year 2019-20, an amount of Rs 234.94 crore was sanctioned by the Government of India, against which the J&K government released Rs 52.68 crore in favour of the Himayat Mission and retained Rs 182.26 crore.

"An expenditure of Rs 23.83 crore was incurred during the year leaving an unutilised balance of Rs 314.01 crore at the close of 31 March 2020," it said.

The CAG report further said that for the year 2019-20, no targets were fixed though 10,045 unemployed youth were trained and 2,582 were placed in jobs under the scheme.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)