Jobs at centre of Gujarat poll tussle

AHMEDABAD,MAY 23:  The issue of unemployment in Gujarat looms large for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the state Assembly elections. Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal has already highlighted the issue in his three public rallies in the state, questioning the hyped ‘Gujarat model’ of the BJP, and comparing the employment figures in Delhi.

AAP leaders say jobs will be on top of election agenda. “There are over 50 lakh educated unemployed youth in Gujarat, and over 1 crore uneducated unemployed. We are going to launch a big movement to provide jobs,” said AAP spokesperson Yogesh Jadvani.

Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi also talked about launching a “Rojgardo” (give employment) Yatra to take the issue door to door. “At the end of this yatra, we have organised a Rojgar Mahasammelan in which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will also be present,” he said.

“There have been several ‘vibrant summits” in Gujarat so far in which it was claimed that 85% of Gujarati youth will get jobs, but BJP has given jobs to only 10-15% of them,” Jadvani said. “Even the number of forms filled out by aspirants for the vacancies during government recruitments how high the unemployment rate is.”

The Gujarat government, meanwhile, claims that the state has got the highest number of jobs for the youth. However, according to the figures presented in the last budget session of the Legislative Assembly, 3.64 lakh educated youth have not got employment. The government has given jobs to only 0.35% of unemployed youth in the last two years. Not even 0.5% of the registered unemployed youth got government jobs. A total of 3,46,436 educated and 17,816 semiliterate youth have registered as unemployed.

The figures were stated by Brijesh Merja, state minister for labour, skill development, and employment, in response to queries from Congress MLAs. In two years, no single government job was given to that registered unemployed in 16 districts, including Bharuch, Narmada, and Surat.

Congress also highlighted that there are 20 Class-1 posts vacant in the Road and Building department, which also has 503 openings for Class-2  positions, 2,862 for Class-3 positions, and 571 vacancies for Class-4 jobs. “With over 50% posts vacant, how is any work getting done?,” a Congress legislator asked.

TNIE