The Government has dissolved the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) with effect from July 24, 2014.

“As per the provisions of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act, all members including the Chairman shall vacate their office as members/Chairman of the Commission with immediate effect,” said a release issued by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) issued here on July 25.

All the properties and funds which, immediately before the dissolution on July 24, 2014, were in the possession of KVIC shall now vest in the Central Government, the release added.

Last week, Devendrakumar R Desai, a veteran Gandhian, had resigned as Chairman of KVIC “on moral grounds”, according to a PTI report. Desai had told the news agency that he had resigned “on moral grounds after the formation of new Government at the Centre, to give it the chance to appoint a new Chairman”.

He was appointed as KVIC Chairman in November 2012 by the UPA Government.

Generating jobs

According to the MSME Ministry, KVIC has been dissolved to revamp the institution and make it “more professionally competent, effective and efficient body for the development and promotion of khadi and village industries and for generation of more employment opportunities in the rural non-farm sector.”

Incidentally, after taking over from the NDA in 2004, the UPA Government too had issued a release dissolving KVIC, citing almost similar reasons, i.e. “to make it more professionally competent, effective and efficient for the development and promotion of khadi and village industries as also for the generation of more employment opportunities in the rural non-farm sector.”

The then Chairman, Mahesh Sharma, an NDA appointee, had to quit.

Last week, in a written reply to Parliament, MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra had informed the House that a detailed study of the khadi sector had been assigned to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2008 by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) on the basis of a concept note prepared by KVIC.

The study had formulated a scheme to revitalise the sector, after which the UPA Government started the Khadi Reforms and Development Programme, which is being implemented with assistance of $150 million from the Asian Development Bank.

Recently, the Minister also held a review meeting on khadi and village industries and asked the KVIC to come out with a time-bound action plan to revitalise the sector.

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