The Jharkhand government will offer jobs to a dozen sportspersons on Tuesday, besides presenting cash awards to some prominent others.

This may please a section of sportspersons but may not help the state government to live up to the expectations raised by its earlier announcement of observing 2021 as “the year of employment”.

In order to promote sports in the state, the Hemant Soren government first offered employment to 24 sportspersons by appointing them as sports officers in as many districts of the state in October last year.

It was followed up by appointing 27 other sportspersons — 17 women and 10 men — as police constables in March this year.

Though 27 of the selected 39 sportspersons were given appointment letters in March, the rest 12 will be given those on Tuesday, informed sports secretary Pooja Singhal.

“Three of them — Madhumita Kumari, Ritesh Anand and Bhagyavati Chanu — would be offered the job of sub-inspector (of police),” she informed, adding others would receive offer letters for the posts of constables that day.

Those who will get the offer letters for joining as constables are Biplab Kumar Jha, Dinesh Kumar, Krishna Khalko, M. Vijay Kumar, Lovely Choubey, Lakhan Hansda, Santa Tirkey, Farzana Khan and Reena Kumari.

Besides, some prominent sportspersons “who excelled in their games and brought glory and honour for the nation as well as Jharkhand” would also be given cash awards that day, the sports secretary further informed, adding those would include archer Deepika Kumari and hockey players Nikki Pradhan and Salima Tete who represented the country in Tokyo Olympics.

This gesture may please a section of the sporting community but the youths in general who are seeking employment will not be impressed, feel many who consider this to be too less compared to the need.

There is already a sense of disappointment among such youths, more so because they did not find much employment opportunities despite the government declaring 2021 as the year of employment.

Some of their organisations have already planned to organise protests at district level on August 8 and then also at state level in Ranchi on August 10.

“Unemployment is a major issue at present and we will also organise a series of programmes at block and distract levels for mobilising youths towards their right to employment between August 15 and 30,” informed CPI-ML state secretary Janardan Prasad, adding their protest would be against failure of both the state and Central governments in providing employment to the youths.

Meanwhile, the BJP also declared the party would demonstrate across the state from August 20 for expressing support to the youths and pursuing other issues including that of law and order.

Addressing the media at the party's state headquarters in Ranchi on Sunday, BJP state president and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash alleged that the Soren government "was cheating the youths by not offering them them jobs though there are 3.29 lakh vacancies in the state ".