PM tells youth to run paan, pakoda shops: Surjewala
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged on Monday that the BJP governments at the Centre and in Rajasthan failed to fulfil their promises on jobs, saying the unemployment rate in the state is double the national average.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed government promising two crore jobs to youths; CM Vasundhara Raje promised 15 lakh jobs,” Surjewala said. “The Centre and the state government have cheated youth of the country. The PM is suggesting youth to run pakoda stalls and paan shops. This is a mockery of their future.”
Addressing newspersons at the state Congress office, the AICC in-charge of the communication department said, “The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy report states that unemployment rate in the country was 6.6% in October 2018, which was highest in last 20 years. The situation in Rajasthan was double – 13.7%. This is an example of Raje government’s failure.”
Citing the report, Surjewala said Rajasthan stands fifth among the BJP-ruled states on unemployment rate. “CM is busy working on false statistics to hide her failures and claiming to have provided jobs to 44 lakh youths,” he said.
“The fact is that in five years 2.62 lakh jobs were given, which included 1.50 lakh government jobs advertised by the previous Congress government. Under the Skill India programme, 2.90 lakh youths were given training. CAG report says that only 30% of them were given jobs; this means only 90,000 got jobs. 22,000 permanent and temporary jobs were given to ITI trained individuals.”
Surjewala said the CM’s claims were refuted by the
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employment minister in December 2017, who said that 2.17 lakh youths were given employment under the BJP government. “The CM’s claims were also refuted in CAG report, which states that placement figures provided by Rajasthan Skill and Livelihood Development Corporation (RSLDC) between 2014 and 2017 are suspicious. The government claims to have provided training to 1.27 lakh youth in this period and given placement to 42,758. CAG verification shows placement of only 9904 people,” he said.
“The anti-youth mindset of PM and CM is well known. During a meeting in Sikar on January 19, 2017, CM called unemployed youth ‘lafanga’. PM suggested youth in January to run paan and pakoda shops for employment.”
Highlighting job crunch, Surjewala said that in 2017, for 18 peon posts at the state assembly 13,000 applied, which included 129 engineers, 23 advocates and 393 postgraduates. In 2015, for five peon posts, 23,000 had applied.
Demonetisation ended lakhs of jobs and ruined the economy. The report of the Center for Monitoring for Indian Economy states that the move took away 15 lakh jobs and caused loss of Rs 3 lakh crore to economy, Surjewala said. “BJP’s Mudra scheme became a parameter of failure. The average loan given in Modi government is Rs 47,000. Can anyone start a business with this amount. With this amount even pakoda stall cannot be started.”
He said the BJP has given tickets to ministers facing corruption charges. “This government is drowned in corruption. The leadership is worried if the ministers are denied tickets, they might open up the secrets.”
He said the BJP accuses Congress of nepotism. “In Madhya Pradesh the BJP has given over 73 tickets to family members of leaders.”
Countering the allegations, BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said Congress is responsible for stalling 26,000 teachers’ recruitment by taking it to court. “We provided self-employment to 15 lakh youth; over five lakh youths got employment opportunity through 1300 job fairs; 13,000 youths benefitted from job fairs held by IT department; and 50 lakh youth availed of benefits of PM Mudra scheme,” he said.