Bengal beats double whammy, June unemployment rate drops to 6.5%: Report
Kolkata: The unemployment rate in Bengal has dropped to 6.5 percent in June compared to that of 17.41 percent in the previous month. This comes at a time when the national average for the same is 10.99 percent in the month of June.
A report of CMIE for the month of June that has been released recently shows that the unemployment rate in Bengal is lower than 17 states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. The highest rate of unemployment in June was in Haryana accounting for 33.6 percent.
The national average is 10.99 percent that includes 12.02 percent in urban and 10.52 percent in rural regions of the country.
Quoting similar data of the CMIE on the unemployment rate of May on June 4, state Finance minister Amit Mitra had tweeted: "Unemployment rate in national level was 23.48 percent. In Bengal, despite twin challenges of COVID-19 and Cyclone, Bengal much, much better at 17.41 percent."
An official at Nabanna said it has been discussed in a meeting about the state's success in bringing down the unemployment rate by 10.91 percent in just a month despite fighting the pandemic and the Amphan aftermath.
"Besides tackling COVID-19, the aftermath of Amphan and migrant issues, the state government has also created around 8 crore man-days under MGNREGA scheme. At the same time, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had given a call to impose lockdown norms in a manner so that livelihood does not get affected. The state government had given clearance to carry out construction work following all protocol. Major projects under different departments of the state government have also begun and at the same time, clearances were given to start operations at private offices, tea and jute sectors with set guidelines in place," added the official.
Following the Chief Minister's direction, development projects were started by all departments including Public Works Department, Urban Development and Municipal Affairs, Irrigation and Waterways and all the civic bodies that are being carried out in full swing. It helped in the generation of jobs and the state government officials are considering these as crucial factors in bringing down the unemployment rate in the state.
