BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar says Dr Manmohan Singh's jobless growth charge is factually wrong
He said Dr Singh was perhaps referring to the leaked draft survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) to buttress his claims on high jobless growth rate.
Published: 18th February 2019 03:03 PM | Last Updated: 18th February 2019 03:03 PM | A+A A-
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Photo | PTI)
BENGALURU: BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar Monday said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's charge of jobless growth is factually wrong as the NDA government had so far spent Rs 10 lakh crore on the infrastructure sector, which has been creating downstream jobs as confirmed by EPFO data.
He said Dr Singh was perhaps referring to the leaked draft survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) to buttress his claims on high jobless growth rate.
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"Dr Manmohan Singh's charge of jobless growth is factually wrong as he has perhaps referred to NSSO data, which simply is a survey, not real data like Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)," Chandrasekhar said in a statement.
"During the last five years of Modi government, public spending in infra sector has been to the tune of Rs 10 lakh crore in roads, ports, and railways. All of this is construction, creating downstream jobs," he added.
He also accused Dr Singh of using the survey data to suit his context, he said. Indian economy according to Chandrasekhar is in a far better place today than it was in 2014.
Singh, in his convocation address at the Delhi School of Management, had said jobless growth has slipped into job-loss growth, which, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos, has made the growing number of aspirational youths restless.
"Let us be the clear-our economy is in a far stronger and better place today than it was in 2014 when Dr Singh demitted office. The damaged economy he left behind has been rebuilt slowly and surely and we are on a path of sustainably high growth," he said.
The NSSO survey did not capture all the important measures that the budget 2018 did to revitalize the MSMEs and informal sector, Chandrasekhar said. There is no real job data in government historically because of the dominance of informal and unorganised sector in overall jobs, he added.
