‘68 lakh youth got jobs, 12 lakh more jobs to be generated soon’

It may be mentioned that the Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Mannan has challenged the claim of the state government of generating jobs for 68 lakh youths in the past five years.

Banerjee said that there will be generation of employment in small and medium scale enterprise and at the same time in education sector as well. She has also raised her apprehension that the generation of jobs will get affected with 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing sector.

“If production units are not being set up in the country, then how will the youth get jobs?,” Banerjee raised the question, after stating that the same in pharmaceuticals will result to a hike in the price of medicines.

She said: “The state government had revived the situation of West Bengal a lot in the past five years. But we still have to cross many milestones to take the state to the top.” She sought constructive suggestions from the Oppositions to take the state to a new level. She said that state government had to give away Rs 1,41,940 crore in the past five years to clear the debts. She had also given a breakdown of the money that the government had to give in every fiscal since 2011. 

Calculating the amount that the government needed to clear the debts in the next five years till 2021, she said that only a small amount will be left over to carry out the development work, though the income of the state had gone up to Rs 53 crore from Rs 14 crore in the past five years.She said that the state government needs to give Rs 2,53,910 crores in the next five years.

Terming the situation as a “debt trap”, she said that if the state faces such problem then it may lead to a threat to the federal structure. She said that she herself had approached the Prime Minister stating the situation of the state and MPs of her party had also approached the Union Finance minister. She requested for a special discussion in the Assembly in this connection and to involve other states as well. The reason being, besides West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab are also facing the same situation. Other states may face similar problem in future.

Despite of passing through financial constraints, the state government had undertaken several steps to solve problems and many projects had become model for rest of the country. Price rise is a Centre’s subject. But the state government is taking steps to increase the yield of pulses and onions. 

So that the transportation charges will no more get added to the price of a product and it will be available at a cheaper price. Banerjee said that both short and long term plans were taken up for the agriculture sector in the state. The Chief Minister also said that no one wants attacks on women. Everyone needs to work together to curb the problem instead of politicising the issue.