Picking apart the SAD-BJP Government’s claims on employment front, Punjab Congress on Tuesday maintained that their promise of providing 10 lakh new jobs made in the election manifesto fell flat as the “industrial mismanagement” led to downsizing of around 10 lakh workers with only 35,000 getting jobs in past seven years of its regime.
Making frontal attack on the coalition Government for the second consecutive day, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa said: “Contrary to promise of providing 10 lakh new jobs, promised in SAD’s election manifesto, the industrial mismanagement in their regime has led to retrenchment of about 10 lakh skilled and unskilled workers in the last seven years.”
He said that with closure of around 18,770 industrial units and many such on the verge of closing down due to irrational tax structure, forced power cuts and irresponsible industrial policy, had hit the manufacturing sector at heavy cost to the state exchequer. “If the thumbrule of 50 employees per unit having to lose a job is applied, then almost 10 lakhs people have been rendered jobless, thus effecting more than 40 lakh members of their families throughout Punjab,” he added.
Bajwa pointed that SAD had promised in its manifesto of 2007-12 to fill 1.50 lakh vacancies and create 10 lakh jobs if voted back to power in 2012. “Information sought under Right to Information Act has nailed the lies of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy son Sukhbir Badal in this regard. They are just trying to camouflage gloomy scenario in the state by issuing statements that all is well. Progressive Punjab Investment Summit and now Agriculture Summit are mere political gimmicks to divert people’s attention from real problems faced by them like unemployment, worsening law and order and other burning issues in the State,” said Bajwa.
Arrogating that RTI information has “blown the lid off SAD-BJP Government’s false claims”, Bajwa said that as per official records, SAD-BJP Government has provided jobs to only 35034 unemployed persons in last seven years. “5,30,724 persons have registered themselves in the employment exchanges during SAD-BJP regime beginning 2007 till August 2013 and only six percent of them got the jobs,” he added.
Bajwa pointed that in Malwa region, Badal’s home turf, the job generation scenario is grim. “In Muktsar district, 10884 youth registered for job out of which only 41 got jobs accounting 0.38 per cent,” he added. “Out of 2,19,784 scheduled castes registered with the job generation department till August 2013, only 2680 persons were provided jobs which are just 1.21 percent. In OBC category, jobs were provided only to 553 out of 19,969 registered unemployed 2.76 percent,” he added.