The Assam government on Saturday provided appointment letters to 22,958 new recruits and announced plans to recruit another 34,000 as part of its pre-poll promise of providing one lakh jobs, but the Opposition was unimpressed.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted: “A momentous occasion for all of us as we are on course to redeem our pledge to provide 1 lakh jobs to youth of Assam. By handing over appointment letters to 22,958 recruits in 11 departments, we have tried to set a new precedence in transparent appointments to government jobs.”

The new recruits had attended the massive distribution ceremony held at Khanapara ground here.

The ruling BJP had promised before the 2021 Assembly polls to provide one lakh government jobs within a year.

In another tweet, Sarma, who took charge on May 10, 2021, said, “We are on a mission to transform Assam into a top performing state and we shall count on your support to serve people with sincerity & dedication. We shall soon recruit another batch of 7,000-8,000 youth, while written exam for 26,000 posts will be held in last week of July.”

The Opposition — Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad — had hit out at the state government in run-up to the first anniversary celebration of the BJP-led government on May 10 for not fulfilling its pre-poll promise of providing one lakh within a year, among others.

Raijor Dal president and a sitting MLA Akhil Gogoi took a dig at the development by tweeting, “1 (ONE) year has already elapsed but 1 lakh jobs haven’t been provided for the unemployed youth of Assam! Big promise little action.” In another tweet, he also congratulated the government for at least “partially fulfilling” the promise made in 2021 but it is far less...”

Sarma said the first five months of his government was spent on tackling the Covid pandemic and that the new recruitments were done in a transparent manner.

Assam Mahila Congress president Mira Borthakur welcomed the new appointments but reminded the government that the promise was to appoint one lakh youths. “We hope the government

will complete the process at the earliest in the interest of the unemployed youths,” she said.

Of the new recruits, 11,063 were absorbed in the education department, 8,867 in Assam Police, 2,419 in the health department, 330 in public health and engineering department. The other departments which recruited included water resource (105), social welfare (69), agriculture (55), forest (23), labour welfare (17), public works department (8) and mines and minerals (2).