Punjab: The math of AAP govt’s 25,000 job promise; and the 0s earlier

However, Punjab has heard this before.

Poll guarantee

Campaigning for AAP in Punjab, Mann had promised that if voted in, his first signature would be on a decision announcing jobs for youth. He often said the youths would mob him at rallies telling him they didn’t have jobs, and would ask why anyone who had work to go to, would turn up at a political rally. Making his job announcement, Mann said that as soon as the results came in, he had asked government officials about the number of vacancies that needed to be immediately filled up.

The 25,000 figure

After coming to power, the Amarinder Singh government had set up District Bureaus of Employment and Exercise, and issued forms for eligible youths to fill up. During the last year of his government, 2019-20, an exercise was undertaken to calculate the total vacancies in different departments, with the government hoping to fill these in time for elections.

At that time about 71,000 vacancies were identified. After Amarinder was ousted, CM Charanjit Singh Channi started the process to fill 35,000 of the posts. Of the 35,000 vacancies left, 25,000 are to be filled as of now.

While the Singh government also claimed to have filled up vacancies, the Opposition said only menial jobs were given.

The recruitment process

The government is taking stock currently of the departments where vacancies need to be urgently filled up. Mann has promised that the notification for recruitment would be issued within a month, following which job advertisements would be made.

The last big recruitment drive in Punjab

In the recent past, no large-scale hirings have taken place in the state. Before the 2017 Assembly elections, the then SAD-BJP government had identified 1.14 lakh vacancies to fill. However, the poll promise hadn’t stopped its electoral rout. Then, Amarinder had also started the exercise just ahead of the next election, which had similarly failed.

Following the announcement by Mann now, the financial implications are being worked out. The Punjab currently has an annual salary bill of Rs 25,000 crore, with slabs some of the highest in the country. Successive finance ministers have identified salaries as the biggest drain on Punjab’s resources. Governments have also tried to bring down the staff strength, which stands at nearly 2.85 lakh employees.

Latest announcement

On Tuesday, Mann announced regularisation of 35,000 contractual employees in the state. He said he had asked Chief Secretary Anirudh Tewari to prepare a Bill in this regard to be tabled in the next Vidhan Sabha session. This has been a long pending demand of contractual employees.