BHUBANESWAR: A day after BJP Yuva Morcha threatened to lock up employment exchange offices across the State on November 5, the BJD on Saturday announced to stage dharna in front of all Central public sector undertakings (PSUs) for three days.Countering the BJP allegation that the State Government has failed to provide jobs to youths in the last 18 years, BJD general secretary Sanjay Das Burma said the Centre had promised two crore jobs every year. Had the BJP-led NDA government fulfilled its promise, around 36 lakh youth of the State could have got employment. While the Centre failed to keep its promise, around 1.27 crore job were lost due to demonetisation, Das Burma added.
“The Centre had also failed to come up with an industrial corridor in Odisha in past four-and-a-half years,” said Das Burma.Accusing the Centre of neglecting Odisha, he said the State has not been included in the industrial corridor programme despite having huge mineral deposits. While the Central PSUs are making thousand of crores as profits, they are apathetic towards the youth of the State so far as employment opportunities are concerned. People from outside State are given preference over locals, he added.
While Nalco has doubled its profit this year, there is no employment opportunity for the youth of the State. Though the national oil PSUs IOCL, HPCL and BPCL have earned profit to the tune of `8,245 crore, `2,659 crore and `3,102 crore respectively in 2017-18, they had little to offer on employment front for the local youth, the BJD leader said.
The former minister said the party has decided to protest the callousness of the Centre by organising peaceful demonstration in the form of Central PSUs. The students and youth wings of BJD will stage dharna in front of all Central PSUs on November 5, 6 and 8 from 10 am to 12 pm.Justifying its decision to lock up the employment exchanges, BJP said there is no need for such offices when the government is not able generate jobs for the youths.