Modi govt’s ‘Rozgar Mela’ event management stunt: Mallikarjun Kharge

New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday dubbed the government’s ‘Rozgar Mela’ as an “event management stunt”, and attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to “provide two crore jobs” per year as promised before assuming power.

In a post on X, he said that after having failed to fulfil his promises, PM Modi resorts to such “whitewashing” from time to time by providing employment letters to a few thousands of people at such events.

“Today again Modi ji did an event management stunt of distributing a few thousand jobs. To hide their promise of creating two crore jobs every year, they have to resort to such whitewashing from time to time,” he said in his post in Hindi.

Citing responses received under the Right to Information Act, Kharge said 9.56 lakh posts are vacant in 80 departments of the Central government alone.

There are 2.13 lakh vacancies in the defence department which is related to the security of the country, he said, adding that the Agniveer Yojana has ruined the future of the youth.

The railways has a shortage of 3.16 lakh officers and officials while rail accidents have increased due to a lack of human resources, Kharge said.

“The Union Home Ministry, which is responsible for the internal security of the country, also has 1.28 lakh vacant posts of personnel. This is the status of these lakhs of vacant posts in the Central government departments, as of March 1, 2023!

“Not just this — instead of filling jobs in government departments, the BJP has eliminated 5.1 lakh posts in the last 10 years by selling the Government of India’s share in PSUs alone. Casual and contract recruitment has increased by 91 percent. SC, ST, OBC posts have decreased by 1.3 lakh by 2022-23.

“On top of that, paper leaks, GST on exam papers, stampedes for a handful of jobs, presenting false employment statistics, counting unpaid labour as jobs…

…All this expose the shameful negative attitude of the Modi government towards the youth,” Kharge said.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also said, “He had done a similar ‘Rozgar Mela’ last year. There is simply no limit to His vanity and self-glorification.”

Prime Minister Modi on Monday said his government has provided nearly 10 lakh permanent government jobs to youths in the last one or one-and-a-half years which is a “record”.

Addressing the recruits at a Rozgar Mela through a virtual event, where more than 71,000 people were given appointment letters, he said never before in the tenure of any previous government were jobs provided in such a “mission mode”.

The young population is at the centre of his government’s policies and programmes, he said, adding honesty and transparency have driven the recruitment process.

The prime minister said ‘Rozgar Melas’ (recruitment drives) are empowering the youth and unlocking their potential. “The youth of India today is full of new confidence, succeeding in every sector.”

Noting that a large number of recruits are women, Modi said it is the endeavour of his government that they become self-dependent in every field.