DEHRADUN: With an eye on youth vote, all parties in Uttarakhand are promising ‘lakhs of jobs’, although none of them have given any roadmap or even an indication as to how and where the new jobs will be created.
All the three parties in contention in the upcoming Assembly elections — the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party — are trying to lure the young voters with promises of jobs as rising employment is becoming a matter of concern. Nearly 50 per cent voters in the Himalayan state are in the age-group of 18-40 years.
While the working age population Uttarakhand has seen a 14 per cent rise in past five years, employment rate in the state came down to 30.43% in December 2021 from 40.10% in December 2016, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data.
“The youths in the age group of 18-40 constitute almost half the voter in the state. The party that will be able to win their trust will have its way. The youth of the Uttarakhand has been plagued by unemployment for long now,” said Jay Singh Rawat, a Dehradun based political analyst.
The incumbent BJP government led by 46-year-old Pushkar Singh Dhami has claimed to have given lakhs of jobs to the youth of the state and is promising more if returned to power. Party leaders said youth are given due importance by the BJP and the party’s poll manifesto, to be released soon, will reflect the same.
Congress leaders, on the other hand, accuse the BJP government of doing nothing in the last five years except changing chief ministers. Senior Congress leader and former CM Harish Rawat said, “The BJP promised a lot but delivered nothing. The youth holds the key to the future of Uttarakhand and they must use it wisely.”
The AAP, a new entrant, has announced various ‘guarantees’, including `5,000 per month to all the unemployment youth till they get jobs. Asserting that his government in Delhi has given jobs to over 10 lakh people in Delhi, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said this would be replicated in Uttarakhand, too, if the party comes to power.
