Jobless youth find Capt Amarinder’s exit excuse to deny them jobs

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 20

Job-seeking educated unemployed youth of the state are finding former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s exit as another political manoeuvre to deny them employment.

Jagroop Singh, a member of the B.Ed, TET Passed Union, said qualified youth had been the biggest sufferers of the policies of successive governments. His organisation would continue to hold agitations, despite the change of guard in the state. “Our parents paid through their nose to foot our education bills. Instead of helping the aging parents, we continue to be dependent on them”. Private schools did not pay them adequately and many of them issued pink slips to teachers during the Covid-19 period, Jagroop rued.

Capt Amarinder only utilised youth as a ladder to get votes and exited when the protests from job aspirants were at their peak in his hometown, he maintained.

Manpreet Singh Bhatia, a qualified but unemployed youth, said his hopes of finding a regular job were dashed during Capt Amarinder’s tenure. Before the last Assembly elections, the promise of a job in each family was a big assurance. However, it proved to be another lie, like the BJP’s announcement of releasing Rs 15 lakh in the account of each Indian and bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks, Bhatia alleged.

About 8,000 posts of patwari were lying vacant in the state and people were facing hardships due to non-availability of officials, yet the government was reluctant to fill these posts. The government advertised only 1,090 posts of patwari, which elicited response from 2.33 lakh applicants.

Vikas Kumar, another job aspirant, said government policies had left only one option for the youth — to migrate overseas. “Instead of giving employment to youth, governments preferred to re-employ retired employees,” he maintained. This trend could be easily noticed in the boards constituted independently from the department. He also cited the example of 1,766 retired patwaris being re-employed at Rs 25,000. Notably, youngsters were being employed at a monthly salary of Rs 9,200, Kumar added.

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