Cong promises 50pc quota for women in govt jobs in poll-bound Assam
Continuing with its series of”guarantees”, the Congress said on Thursday that if theopposition Mahajot or Grand Alliance is voted to power inAssam, it will ensure 50 per cent reservation for women ingovernment jobs.
Addressing a press conference, All India Mahila CongressPresident Sushmita Dev said the Congress-led alliance willfocus more on the upliftment of women and youths.
“When the Congress-headed grand alliance will form thegovernment, we will implement 50 per cent reservation forwomen. This will be our guarantee and it will be one of thefirst things were going to do,” she said.
The Congress has formed a broadbased alliance with AIUDF,BPF, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), and Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM) tofight the upcoming assembly election against the BJP-ledNational Democratic Alliance (NDA) for 126-member Assam house.
Dev asserted that the Congress and the grand alliancebelieve in accountability and guarantee of jobs.
“Youths and women of Assam dont want charity. They wantjob opportunities and want to contribute to the economy of thestate,” she said, taking a dig at the BJP-led stategovernments various schemes of direct benefit transfer.
Dev said the women reservation issue will be a part ofguarantees in the manifesto for the upcoming Assam assemblypolls.
Women form a big chunk of the Assam voters.
Out of total over 2.31 crore voters in Assam, womenelectorate are more than 1.14 crore.
On March 2, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hadannounced five guarantees of the grand alliance — five lakhgovernment jobs, monthly Rs 2,000 to every housewives, 200units of free power to all, an act nullifying theCitizenship (Amendment) Act and hiking the minimum daily wagesof tea garden workers to Rs 365.
All India Congress Committee General Secretary JitendraSingh said the partys Asom Bachaon Ahok Yatra travelledover 10,000 km across the state and reached the poorestsegment of the society.
“While interacting with the public, the most importantissue that came out was unemployment. Insufficient salary isalso another crucial issue among the educated youths workingin the state.
“BJP did not solve any problem, but gave Citizenship(Amendment) Act to Assam,” he added.
Congress Assam unit president Ripun Bora said the grandalliance, if voted to power, will create a separate departmentfor generation of jobs.
“We have already announced to create five lakh governmentjobs once our government is there. The BJP promised 25 lakhjobs in five years, but actually gave employment to only80,000 youths in five years,” he added.
There are another 58,000 sanctioned posts that are vacantat present in addition to 20,000 SC and ST unfulfilled backlogposts, Bora said.
Congress Legislature Party Leader Debabrata Saikiaappealed to all unemployed youths to register at a newlylaunched website — www.congressor5guarantee.in — for gettingjobs after the grand alliance forms government.
During the launch of the online registration drive, 101unemployed youths enrolled their names for jobs on thewebsite.
Congress Campaign Committee Chairman Pradyut Bordoloiclaimed Assam has a shortage of 40,000 health workers, 38,000school teachers, 12,000 college teachers and 15,000 policemenamong others.
“There are 50 government departments in Assam. Everydepartment has thousands of vacant sanctioned posts. Now, wemust ask why Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and FinanceMinister Himanta Biswa Sarma did not fill these posts,” hesaid.
Meanwhile, Bora said ethnic group Jimochayan (Deori)Peoples Party (JPP) joined the Congress-led grand alliance.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
