On 4th anniversary, Modi govt to showcase jobs created

NEW DELHI: One of the focal points of the Modi government’s fourth anniversary celebrations later this month will be on the number of jobs created since it came to power in 2014, in a bid to counter Congress-led opposition’s charge that it had failed to create employment as promised.

All ministries have been asked to provide data of both direct and indirect employment generated by each of them and entities attached to their departments, sources said. Sources said the ministerial committee set up to prepare the plan for the fourth anniversary celebrations has identified this as a priority area.

“Every ministry and department has been providing data about its achievements at regular intervals. This time they have been asked to provide all information including employment created by them in the past four years,” said a source. The sources said the government will come out with the details of jobs, particularly in the organised sector.

“We are hopeful of a good report when data from all sectors are compiled,” the source said. Congress has been targeting the Modi government, saying it failed to create the promised two crore jobs a year. Recently, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had claimed “while China gives employment to 50,000 youths in 24 hours, Narendra Modi gives employment to 450 people in 24 hours”.

On Wednesday, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma had said, “The biggest jobs losses have been in the 15-19 years age group. It has come down from 20% to 9%. In the 20-24 age group it has come down by seven percentage points.”

He had claimed that the employment of women post demonetisation has decreased from 16% to 12%. Employment generation and agrarian crisis have been the two major concerns for the government.

While the government is yet to formalise its announcement on hiking the minimum support price (MSP) of their kharif crops by 50% above the cost, sources said the government has to push construction activities to see increase in employment generation. Construction sector is one of the biggest job generators in India.