BENGALURU: Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said that there is a staggering 2.94 lakh vacancies in various government departments in Karnataka.“Yet, cabinet-rank positions are being filled in super-fast mode. The Congress government’s sense of priority is evident,” Kumaraswamy, a former CM, said.
It is the prolonged neglect in filling government vacancies that has compelled the youth to take to the streets, Kumaraswamy said, adding, “My earnest appeal to the youth: please keep your protest peaceful, I stand firmly with you.”
Quoting the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission report by RV Deshpande, Kumaraswamy said nearly 7 lakh young people are unemployed in the state. “A responsible administration should have undertaken phased recruitment. Instead, three invaluable years have been squandered in chair politics, leaving little time for the aspirations of the youth. Unemployment is not a routine administrative concern, it is a simmering volcano.
The government must awaken to this reality, make dedicated budgetary provisions, and immediately initiate large-scale recruitment,” the JDS leader said.
According to Kumaraswamy, the highest vacancies persist in the departments of education, health, and police. “Alarmingly, 18 key police stations in Bengaluru city are functioning without inspectors, a telling symptom of a government preoccupied with transfers. This drift in governance is already having adverse consequences on the ground. The government must act with urgency, step down from the third floor of Vidhana Soudha and listen to the voice of the youth. Failing this, the Congress government will inevitably have to reckon with the mounting public anger,” Kumaraswamy said.
Karnataka BJP president
BY Vijayendra alleged that before the 2023 Assembly polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi came to Belagavi and promised Karnataka’s youth that 2.5 lakh government vacancies would be filled within one year. “Congress repeated the same promise in its manifesto, in writing. Two and a half years later, vacancies have crossed 2.8 lakh, but recruitment is nowhere to be seen. Congress’ financial mismanagement has pushed the state into such a mess
that it cannot even conduct basic recruitment processes. Karnataka’s youth is paying the price for this. Their prime years are being wasted while protests grow across the State,” Vijayendra said.