After parting ways with Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Thursday attacked Bharatiya Janata Party government over rising unemployment in the country.
The BSP chief said the truth behind the so-called development under the National Democratic Alliance government, particularly the propaganda made by the ruling party during the recent parliamentary elections, was exposed by the data confirming the high unemployment rate in the country.
Mayawati said the latest figures on unemployment released by the government clearly indicated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team had tried to mislead the youths over “employment” and “development”.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, Mayawati said, “The Union Labour Ministry, in its data released after the Lok Sabha election, has confirmed that joblessness in the country was 6.1 per cent of total labour force, the highest in the last 45 years. For the victims of poverty and unemployment, there is no point of regretting now.”
She also said the dip in growth rate was the result of fall in agricultural and industrial output.
“The point of concern is that how true welfare will be done for the poor people of the country,” Mayawati said.
On May 31, the government confirmed the unemployment rate projected in a pre-election leaked report and said joblessness in the country was 6.1 per cent of total labour force during 2017-18, the highest in 45 years.
The data released by the Labour Ministry on a day when Modi Cabinet took charge for the second time, showed 7.8 per cent of all employable urban youths being jobless, while for the rural youths the figure was 5.3 per cent.
Joblessness among males on all India basis was 6.2 per cent, while it was 5.7 per cent in case of females.
India’s economic growth rate slowed to a five-year low of 5.8 per cent in January-March 2018-19 due to poor performance in agriculture and manufacturing sectors, according to official data.
During the Lok Sabha election campaign, the opposition had targeted the Modi government, accusing it of having failed to keep up its promise of creating two crore jobs per year.