The Centre has not set a target for job creation, labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangawar told the Lok Sabha on Monday, The Times of India reported.
The Centre has not set a target for job creation, labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangawar told the Lok Sabha on Monday, The Times of India reported.
In a written response to INLD MP Dushyant Chautala’s question on employment over the past three years, Gangwar said, “No target has been set by the government. However, the employment generation ... is the priority concern of the Government (sic).”
The minister said the government has taken steps to generate employment by encouraging private sector, fast-tracking projects involving substantial investment and increasing expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY).
The government, in its response, quoted annual labour force surveys of 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2015-16. The sharpest increase in unemployment rate was in Himachal Pradesh, from 1.8% in 2014-15 to 10.2% in 2015-16. The other two states with high unemployment rates were Kerala and Tripura, at 10.6% and 10%, respectively, in 2015-16
The Central government has been criticised over the lack of available jobs. Last month, former finance minister P Chidambaram hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that there would be 2 crore jobs available under his leadership.
"Before you assumed office, you promised 2 crore jobs a year. The ILO describes a proper job as employment that is certain, regular and reasonably secure. What is your definition of a job? How many ILO-described jobs were created in the four years of your government?," he questioned to Modi in one of the questions.
Earlier this year, PM Modi in an interview with Zee News said, "n our country, there are two sectors, formal and informal. It is accepted that 10 per cent of the jobs are in formal sector, and 90 per cent are in informal sector. A neutral agency has given a report that in the formal sector, 70 lakh EPF accounts have been opened in one year. These accounts have all personal details, alongside the money that is deposited. The reality is different from what some people are claiming. No one can deny the fact that road construction has doubled in the country, railway tracks are being laid and developed at double the speed. This is a labour intensive job. Now, twice the number of people are required to do these jobs, since the speed has doubled. But this is part of the informal sector, which does not reflect in the reports. In Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, 10 crore people have got Rs 4 lakh crore in form of loans without security. Out of the 10 crore, three crore people have never been sanctioned any loan by any bank. So, it means, that they are first time entrepreneurs."
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