Rajasthan: Raje’s failure to give jobs to hurt BJP

With just six months to go before seeking the mandate of the people of Rajasthan in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha election, the Vasundhara Raje government is lagging behind in terms of offering jobs. In the coming six months, it has targeted to provide 1.40 lakh jobs to the people. But the Raje government, which has made it a budgetary promise to fill more than 1.40 lakh posts before December 2018, is way behind its target with extremely poor implementation affecting its goal. Out of the total number of posts, 77,100 posts are in the education department alone. There are more than 18,000 posts in the police department, 11930 in administrative reforms and 6758 posts in the health department. The posts were to be filled through the appointment process of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission and the Rajasthan Subordinate Ministerial Staff Service Commission. The state government, with some conditions, increased the upper limit of age eligibility for the government jobs from 35 years to 40 years too.

The Raje government’s budget proposal had provided for an employment subsidy of Rs 5000 to industries giving priority to bonafide residents of Rajasthan. The subsidy was increased to Rs 45,000 for providing employment to bonafide residents by the established enterprise in backward regions. But the private sector has not responded to this.

Further, a skill training scheme was also announced by the Chief Minister in order to better prepare youths for jobs. Under the scheme, Rs 15 crore has been allocated for entrepreneurship development. But this has also not found ignificant takers.

“Landing a government job is a dream for most middle class people and the prevailing uncertainty in the private sector and job security in the government jobs have contributed to this. The youths want to cash in on the 1.40 lakh jobs offered by the state government in 108 types of posts. But, the process is very slow and, with several court interventions, it is unlikely that the state government will be able to fulfil its promise to provide 1.40 lakh jobs by December, 2018,” said SK Mathur, a placements expert.

The BJP manifesto promised 15 lakh jobs in five years but it has not been able to provide even one lakh jobs in the past four years. Rajasthan Pradesh Congress chief Sachin Pilot has focussed on the youths, telling them that the BJP government t in the state has failed miserably on the job front. “The BJP government is deceiving the youths by giving a misleading figure relating to employment in the past four years. The claims of providing over three lakh jobs are misleading. Only 89,000 jobs have been provided against the promised magic figure of 15 lakh. The state government should come out with a white paper on this issue as the claims are false,” said Pilot.

Currently, Rajasthan is in the process of filling up 13,142 positions of constables. The earlier examination had to be cancelled because of mass copying. So the written test will be held again. The next job extravaganza will be in the local self-government departments in which 21,136 persons will be provided employment. Then, 26,000 teaching positions will need to be filled up.

“The various court interventions have led to this impasse and the Rajasthan Public Service Commission has been slow in executing the job. But we are trying to make up for the lost time in the coming six months,” said an official of the state’s personnel department.

About 13 lakh youths have applied for 13,142 positions of constables. A large number of applicants are graduates and post-graduates and this shows the keenness of the youths to join a job for which they are over-qualified. Various interventions of the Rajasthan High Court has led to staying of the recruitment process in over 56,000 jobs. Recently, the Rajasthan High Court stayed the recruitment process of grade II teachers of all subjects over a dispute over answer keys. Similarly in case of various other appointments, the High Court has stayed the recruitment proceedings on various technical grounds. This is causing hardship to the youths.

In 2013, over 7,000 youths were recruited as clerks (Grade II), but 2,000 candidates either did not join or quit for better opportunities. The RPSC has provided the state government with a waiting list of 2400 to fill the positions. But the apathy on part of the personnel department put paid to the aspirations of many. And now, it will conduct written examination for recruitment of 8000 new clerks (Grade II) in August. “In the forthcoming elections, the youths will pose big questions to the BJP. They will ask how many of the 15 lakh jobs that were promised were given? The Raje government has no answer to this,” said Archana Sharma, spokesperson of the Pradesh Congress.