Bhubaneswar: Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Odisha Assembly and BJP leader Pradipta Naik Thursday alleged that around 9.11 lakh educated youths in the state are jobless despite the fact that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has been ruling the state for 20 years now.
During discussion on the Budget for 2020-21 fiscal in the House, the BJP leader said that the state government has been able to give employment to less than 1 per cent of the job aspirants. “In the last 20 years only 26,000 jobs have been created by the government – which translates to mere 1 per cent of the unemployed people registered with employment exchanges. Where is the development then? As of date, 9.11 lakh educated youths are still jobless,” he said citing data related to registration at employment exchanges and jobs availed through them.
Firing salvos against the government, the Naik told the House that 22.57 lakh people registered themselves at the employment exchanges but only 26.450 youths were provided employment through these exchanges. The BJP leader questioned the use of allocating `55 crore for events like job fairs and other such drives if they failed to yield the desired results.
Naik also hinted at massive unemployment in the Chief Minister’s home district (Ganjam). He said, “In Ganjam district alone, 55,000 youths are unemployed. While the Chief Minister Employment Generation Programme has failed, the employment drive has been proved to be futile. Even when someone is given a job, the wage is usually very poor.”
The BJP leader further accused the state government of not using the Central funds for undertaking employment generation programmes, but diverting the interests earned through stashing of Central funds in banks for other schemes.
The accusation of Naik relating to diversion of interests received from stashing Central fund in banks has led to a heated debate among the legislators as many of the BJD legislators vehemently attacked the BJP leader for making such allegations and asked him to furnish details and evidences supporting his allegations against the state government.
Speaker Surja Narayan Patro also asked the Leader of Opposition to be careful while making such statements on record and told him to furnish evidence on which the charges were based, especially diversion of interests received from banks on Central funds and the state government’s projects.