BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Assembly on Thursday witnessed noisy scenes over rising unemployment in the state as Opposition BJP targeted the government on the issue.
Raising the issue during zero hour, Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik alleged that the Government does not seem to be serious about the issue even though around 9.11 lakh educated youths are unemployed in the State.
“The Government has so far given employment to only 26,000 youths as against lakhs of applicants registered with the employment exchanges. If the Government can’t give employment to the youths, what’s the point of spending Rs 54-55 crore in the name of job fairs,” he said.
Alleging that Odisha is number one state in the country as far as the unemployment problem is concerned, Naik said the State has even failed to spend the central funds for the purpose.
“The State Government is now utilising the interest accruing on the money from the Centre to run the model schools and several other programmes,” he said.
As the BJP members created noisy scenes over the issue, BJD MLAs strongly objected to the statement made by Naik.
However, Minister of State for School and Mass Education Sameer Dash told mediapersons outside the House that the concept of Adarsha Vidyalaya (model school) is the brainchild of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Rs 400 crore has been provided in 2020-21 for this.
“There is no truth in the allegations,” he said.
BJYM takes out protest rally
Members of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha on Thursday clashed with police in their bid to gherao the Assembly over rising unemployment in the State.
BJYM members staged a massive protest at Lower PMG here after their rally was prevented by the police. Coming down heavily on the State Government for its failure to create job opportunities, State Yuva Morcha president Tankadhar Tripathy said the ruling party had provided jobs to 26,450 persons in the last 10 years out of the 22.57 lakh youths registered with the employment exchanges since 2009.
Tripathy said, “We have been demanding a White Paper from the State Government on the employment provided to youth in the last 19 years, but the Government is silent on the issue.”
He said around 9.11 lakh educated youths are unemployed in the State and the number of unemployed in Ganjam, the district represented by the Chief Minister, is 55,556.