ET Bureau The Congress on Thursday hailed the high court’s interim order allowing the vocational training centre at Jais in Amethi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency, to continue its activities as a “big victory for women of Amethi”.
The party’s chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the interim order of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has “effectively stalled” the UP government’s efforts to close down the centre “at the behest of Union textiles minister Smriti Irani and the BJP’s political manoeuvres”.
The Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) has been providing the training for and on behalf of the not-for-profit organisation Manuj Kalyan Kendra, which runs the centre. Maintaining that the HC order will ensure that vocational training activity at the centre carries on “unabated and without interference from the government”, Surjewala said, “It was argued in court that for 15 years the training centre was providing vocational training, helping more than 15 lakh women find livelihood opportunities.”
Surjewala said Manuj Kalyan Kendra remains the allottee of the land of training centre and RGMVP is merely a programme conducting the training. “By repeatedly questioning RGMVP on the land, the UP government was deliberately trying to politicise the issue... This is part of a political witch-hunt initiated and carried out by Smriti Irani, who has made many speeches and held several meetings with the district administration regarding this issue directing them to take coercive action.”
The party’s chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the interim order of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has “effectively stalled” the UP government’s efforts to close down the centre “at the behest of Union textiles minister Smriti Irani and the BJP’s political manoeuvres”.
The Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) has been providing the training for and on behalf of the not-for-profit organisation Manuj Kalyan Kendra, which runs the centre. Maintaining that the HC order will ensure that vocational training activity at the centre carries on “unabated and without interference from the government”, Surjewala said, “It was argued in court that for 15 years the training centre was providing vocational training, helping more than 15 lakh women find livelihood opportunities.”
Surjewala said Manuj Kalyan Kendra remains the allottee of the land of training centre and RGMVP is merely a programme conducting the training. “By repeatedly questioning RGMVP on the land, the UP government was deliberately trying to politicise the issue... This is part of a political witch-hunt initiated and carried out by Smriti Irani, who has made many speeches and held several meetings with the district administration regarding this issue directing them to take coercive action.”
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