Yogi govt sets sight on ‘mission employment’
LUCKNOW : Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday that 10 lakh jobs would be provided in 1.5 years, the Uttar Pradesh government began work on a plan aimed at creating ‘mega employment’ opportunities ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
“All departments have been asked to identify vacancies and a major effort would be made to fill them in a transparent manner,” a senior minister said.
Finance minister Suresh Khanna said a mega recruitment drive to fill up 40,000 vacancies in the police department would be undertaken soon.
“Nearly 40,000 recruitments to various posts in the police force would soon be made,” Khanna said while adding that UP will aid the PM’s dream of providing employment to youths. “From 2017-2022, 1.81 crore youths were employed in the private sector through private investment in the state and 4.5 lakh youths got government jobs. We intend to employ over 4 lakh more people in the government sector in a phased manner,” said Khanna.
Officials said another recruitment drive to fill up 7,540 vacancies in the basic education department and an estimated 10,000 vacancies in government medical colleges and hospitals would soon be undertaken in a phased manner.
The UP Skill Development Mission too has been tasked with training youths in various short-term training courses that open up employability option, officials said.
Senior BJP leaders said the plan was to create mass recruitment options by 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when the party, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeks an unprecedented third consecutive term in office at the Centre. “We are aware of the criticism by a desperate opposition about rising unemployment. We will contest this theory with figures and also by opening up large-scale recruitments. Providing jobs and employment in rural areas is integral to our plan,” a senior leader said.
“Government’s efforts are invested in ensuring maximum employment. You would have noticed that in projects like construction of Amrit Sarovars, we plan to provide gainful recruitment to an estimated 3.5 lakh people in rural areas with priority to women self-help groups, farmers and members of riverine communities,” said Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesman Harish Srivastava.
“Youths should be prepared to avail employment opportunities that are set to come their way,” said deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who was now tasked with the responsibility of rural development. The UP government plans to construct over 5,600 ponds (Amrit Sarovars), across all 75 Lok Sabha constituencies. In each of the 58,189 village panchayats, the state government would also construct 2 such ponds, around which, it plans to create a range of activities, which it hopes would generate both local tourism and employment.
OPPN HITS OUT
The Yogi government has been citing data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy to claim that unemployment rate in the state, which was 18% in 2016, had come down to 2.9% in April 2022. But opposition parties have consistently slammed the ruling party over what they called “growing unemployment.” “The Yogi government had ‘officially’ admitted in the UP Legislative Council in 2020 that unemployment had risen in the state,” Congress leader Deepak Singh said in response to a query. Congress leaders also claimed that the then labour minister in the first Yogi government, Swami Prasad Maurya, too had admitted that unemployment had climbed from 5.92% in 2018 to 9.97% in 2019.
Recently, during the budget session of the UP assembly, leader of opposition Akhilesh Yadav had contested the government’s claim of transparent recruitments.
“A record 1.54 lakh recruitments in the police department, 1.26 lakh in the primary education department, all done in a transparent manner during my government are proof that scams in recruitment that used to happen prior to 2017 are things of the past,” the CM had said.