Tags:
Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, APRIL 6: The entire Opposition led by the Congress today staged a walkout in Legislative Council condemning the state government for it’s failure in providing jobs to 27 lakh youths in general and over 1 lakh dalit youths in particular.
The issue was raised by MLCs Rajani Satav, Ranjeet Deshmukh, Vasant Chavan and others through a calling attention motion. The members wanted to know if the state government had succeeded in providing jobs to 27 lakh youths statewide as promised in the manifesto of the Sena-BJP alliance. They were also curious about the massive backlog of 192,000 jobs so far as youths belonging to the backward classes were concerned.
While replying to the members, Employment and Self Employment Minister Gajanan Kirtikar said, the government has eliminated unemployment to a great extent in Maharashtra. “It is an established fact that more the investment in industries, more the jobs generated. There has been a specific investment of Rs 62,150 crore in industries in the state duringApril 1995 and October 1998. In the corresponding period, over 21,38,000 youths have been employed at different levels. The government has chalked out a new policy for promoting self employment amongst the youths and by the end of this year, another 7 lakh youths will get jobs,” Kirtikar said.
The minister added that the government had initiated various infrastructure development projects like the Krishna Valley Development Corporation and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation to create more jobs. He then began reading out a long list of projects undertaken by the state government, which irked Leader of the Opposition Chhagan Bhujbal.
“The minister is not saying a word about removing the backlog in providing jobs to dalit youths. We have raised specific question about vacancies in various departments of the state government for the backward classes. The minister is least bothered to throw light on the same,” Bhujbal pointed out.
Kirtikar said the government had launched a special driveto employ dalit youths in government jobs and added that the backlog was being removed through roster system. This failed to satisfy the Opposition members who started shouting anti-government slogans. They requested chairperson Prof NS Pharande to reserve the calling attention motion as the “minister’s reply was misleading and incomplete.” As Pharande turned down their demand, the Opposition members walked out of the House.
Later, Kirtikar appealed the members to coordinate between various government agencies and the unemployed youths. “The Employment Exchange alone will not be able to provide jobs to thousands of unemployed youths enrolling every month. The representatives of people, NGOs and other institutions must come forward to help the government in this matter. They should also promote the youths for starting their own business on completing vocational training,” said Kirtikar.
