No blueprint on three ‘E’s: Priyank Kharge

He pointed out to huge vacancies in the Department of Employment

Priyank Kharge, Congress MLA, on Saturday alleged that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had announced many proposals in the State Budget but there was no clarity on allocation of funds to implement them.

At a press conference here, Mr. Kharge said there was no blueprint on ensuring the three “Es’‘ — education, employment, and empowerment — to all in the State. The State has a Department for Employment and Training, but more than 50% of the posts were vacant in the department, he pointed out. Of the sanctioned posts of 6,187, as many as 3,643 have remained vacant. “How can a department give jobs to others when it is not able to fill its own vacancies?” asked Mr. Kharge.

Giving data provided by the Government during the legislature session, Mr. Kharge said the Government had not conducted job fairs in 2020-21. In 2021-22, a total of 54 job fairs were conducted and 12,882 candidates selected for jobs. The Sanjivini Karnataka Rural Livelihood conducted 10 job melas and selected 6,643 candidates for jobs. Of the total 19,465 selected candidates, only 1883 candidates have been given jobs, he said.

Many small industries had remained closed owing to the Central Government’s bad economic policies. There were no job opportunities for graduates in the State, he alleged and opposed the concentration of efforts at saffronisation of education by the BJP Governments both at the Centre and State.