NSDC reports fraud worth Rs 2.88 cr in funds meant for J&K youth jobs scheme
New Delhi: The National Skill Development Corporation under the Ministry of Finance has now reported a fraud of Rs 2.88 crore in funds assigned for a special industry initiative scheme launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs called "Udaan" - for the upliftment of youth in Jammu and Kashmir so that they can be skill-trained for better employment opportunities.
In a complaint to the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police, the NSDC said that a company it had engaged under a Memorandum of Understanding had allegedly made false representations about its capabilities and intentions and in the process defrauded the government company of Rs 2,88,03,600.
The FIR filed by the EOW in the matter showed that a company known as Yogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd had entered into the MoU with it in May 2013. Under the agreement, NSDC was to release over Rs 72.69 crore in grants to the firm over a period of five years so that the agency can use the funds to train and upskill youth in Jammu and Kashmir.
The employment scheme aimed at training around 40,000 youth in the erstwhile state.
The NSDC, however, soon found that the company did not intend to honour the terms of the contract. The complaint to the EOW said that after the government company paid Yogi Technical Services the first tranche of the grant, amounting to a little over Rs 2.88 crore, the private firm failed to submit both the quarterly and annual utilisation reports for the grant amount.
The NSDC told police that they had repeatedly tried to reach the company but to no avail. "The private company illegally and wrongfully failed to comply with MoU despite receiving the amount released by the NSDC under the scheme Udaan and thereafter willfully failing to file utilisation report," the NSDC said, adding that Yogi Technical Services and its directors had also "deliberately avoided" legal notices served to them and other forms of communication. "The complainant has strong apprehension of misappropriation of the funds by the company," the EOW FIR read.
