The Opposition Congress on Thursday not only launched a website in poll-bound Assam for online employment registration for unemployed youth — www.congressor5guarantee.in. — but also announced a ministry of job creation as part of its guarantee to provide five lakh jobs in five years if it is voted to power in the upcoming three-phased Assembly elections.
During the launch of the website, AICC general secretary in charge of Assam Jitendra Singh and other senior leaders elaborated on, how they will be generating 5 lakh jobs in the public sector and 25 lakh jobs in the private sector, during the course of their tenure if they regain power from the BJP-led alliance.
The move is primarily aimed at assuring the voters that the party was accountable to the guarantees they have made unlike the “unfulfilled promises” made by the BJP since 2014, including the “25 lakh jobs promised before the 2016 Assembly polls but could provide about only 80,000”.
All India Mahila Congress President and Outreach Committee Chairman Sushmita Dev said the job guarantee was given only after studying the state budget and consulting economists.
“If Haryana and Punjab with similar population as Assam can have around 5.5 lakh government employees, why does Assam have only 4.3 lakh? Do we not need state capacity? Do we not need more doctors, teachers engineers? The incoming Congress government will create a new ministry — the ministry of job creation.
“Anyone who is unable to find a job should just catch hold of the minister,” Dev said.
CLP leader Debabrata Saikia, Pradyut Bordoloi, Gaurav Gogoi, Rakibul Hussain and Abdul Khaleque were also present during the announcement.
Jitendra Singh said the one big issue that people from every constituency highlighted was the unemployment.
“Youth do not have jobs & we found it from Tinsukia to Dhubri, from Karimganj to Nowgong, unemployment is the biggest issue. Even those who got employed in last five years are extremely under-paid.
“They are earning so little that they wonder why they got an education. Youth voted because they were told they will get 25 lakh jobs and they only got CAA. Youth from all over Assam have told us how they were cheated by the party currently in power.”
Ripun Bora said the reason why the Congress wants to create 5 lakh new government jobs is because they’re needed.
“They’re needed for 2 reasons: Shortage of government staff and for a plan to make drastic improvement in Assam’s development. The Assam government currently has around 4 lakh 37 thousand employees. There are another 58,000 sanctioned posts that are vacant. Why has Sonowal not been filling up the vacant posts? They’re not creating new posts, and not even filling the posts falling vacant. “With a similar population as Assam, Punjab and Haryana both have around 5.5 lakh government employees,” Bora said.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had on March 2 announced the party’s “five guarantees” to the people of the poll-bound state if voted to power, including a law to nullify the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, if voted to power, generation of five lakh government jobs; raising tea workers’ daily wage to 365; free electricity up to 200 units per household; and Rs 2,000 monthly income support to all housewives.
Thursday’s launch of the registration website and announcement for ministry for job creation has to be seen in this backdrop.
“The Congress is firm on implementing its guarantees,” Bobbeeta Sharma, PCC media department chairperson, said.
By evening, Bora tweeted, “More than 1000 job guarantees given out with just 2 hours of registration launch- speaks volumes about people’s faith in Congress Party’s ideology & leadership! #CongressGivesJobGuarantee #Congressor5Guarantee.”
