No takers,CWG training sessions for auto drivers stopped

The Ministry of Tourism has so far trained just 10 per cent of their estimated drivers as part of the programme. The aim was to cover 8,000 drivers,but after a few sessions last year,the programme was discontinued in January.

While officials in the Ministry of Tourism refused to comment on why the drive was stopped midway,Delhi Auto Drivers’ Union general secretary Rajinder Soni said: “The organisers did not consult us or even ask us to get drivers to attend the sessions. It was only last month that officials of the Transport Department discussed the issue with us and tried to find out why auto drivers didn’t attend the sessions regularly.”

The Ministry of Tourism had engaged the Delhi Institute of Hotel Management for the programme. But only 835 drivers were trained and the government ended up spending approximately Rs 51 lakh for this. The last batch was trained from January 4-6 this year.

The Haryana Institute of Public Administration had been given the responsibility to design the course and impart training through the Delhi Institute of Hotel Management (DIHM),Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) and Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).

The plan was to train the drivers in spoken English,personality development,stress management,road safety,and Yoga in batches of 40 each.

Delhi has an estimated 55,000 auto drivers.

Rakesh Agarwal,secretary of Nyayabhoomi,an NGO working for the betterment of auto drivers,said discontinuing the training programme was worrisome at a time when thousands of drivers are waiting to be trained.