Pulwama trainees await overdue travel allowances for retail marketing training

PULWAMA — Dozens of students who underwent retail marketing training last year are still waiting to receive travel allowances for the past year.

Several trainees informed the news agency KNO that in the year 2022, they enrolled in a private institute in Pulwama for a three-month retail marketing training programme. These institutes offer various government-funded schemes free of cost for poor and needy students, and they chose the retail marketing course.

According to the students, like other courses, the retail marketing course is supposed to provide a daily travel allowance of 125 rupees to each student, with the money to be disbursed at 15-day intervals. However, they claim that they have not received this amount.

“When we raised this issue with the institute head, he said there was a shortage of government funds but assured us that we would receive the money after a few months. However, after two months, when we approached the higher authorities of the scheme, they reiterated the same and promised that we would receive our money after some months,” said one of the trainees.

“Despite completing the course and being eligible for another scholarship, it has been a year, and we still have not received the allowances,” the trainee said, adding, “We have been waiting patiently.”

The students said they were instructed to email the concerned authorities, but they haven’t received any positive response. “We even contacted the JK Grievance Cell, but no positive response was received from them either,” they said.

They claimed that despite multiple attempts to bring the issue to the attention of higher-ups, no action has been taken so far. They are now urging higher authorities to investigate the matter so that they can finally receive their allowances.

The students have also requested Deputy Commissioner Pulwama to personally intervene in the matter and ensure that the deserving trainees receive their travel allowances.

When contacted, DC Pulwama Dr Basharat Qayoom said that he would look into the matter. He assured that the trainees would receive their allowances soon.