Jobs aplenty but north India lacks quality candidates, says minister

Sparking a major controversy, Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has claimed that though there was no dearth of employment opportunities in the country, recruiters complain of lack of “quality people” in north India to fill vacancies.

Update: 2019-09-15 13:03 GMT
Gangwar's comments comes after a data released in May revealed that India’s unemployment rate has risen to 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18 (PTI file)

Sparking a major controversy, Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has claimed that though there was no dearth of employment opportunities in the country, recruiters complain of lack of “quality people” in north India to fill vacancies.

Addressing reporters in his Lok Sabha constituency, Bareilly, Gangwar on Saturday (September 14) said, “Recruiters who visit north India complain of facing dearth of quality people for the posts they need to fill.”

“The issue of employment keep figuring in newspapers these days. I am handling the same ministry for labour and employment and examine the issue daily. I have understood the problem,” he said.

His remark comes after a data released in May revealed that India’s unemployment rate has risen to 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18.

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Meanwhile, Gangwar’s remark triggered a controversy among several section of politicians, including Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who claimed that the government was resorting to blame game due to the current economic slowdown.

“Mr Minister, it has been more than five years for your government. There is no job creation. Whatever jobs were there, they have been snatched due to the economic slowdown brought by the government. You want to escape by insulting North Indians,” the Congress general secretary said.

She added that the youth are looking forward towards the government hoping that it will do something good for them.

Echoing a similar view, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati labelled Gangwar’s comments as laughable.

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“After the different laughable statement by different union ministers on the serious issue of economic slowdown, instead of removing unemployment in the country now it is being said that there is no shortage of jobs, but of competence, especially amongst north Indians. This is extremely shameful and an apology should be tendered to the nation,” she tweeted.

Mayawati was referring to union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s remark last week wherein she blamed millennials preferring Uber and Ola for the slump in car sales across the country. Thereafter, union minister Piyush Goyal too was trolled on social media for wrongfully crediting Albert Einstein for the discovery of gravity during a press conference.

(With inputs from agencies)

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