BJP rakes up unemployment, stages walkout from Himachal Assembly

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, December 22

The BJP today staged a walkout from the Assembly over the unemployment issued. It accused the state government of not fulfilling the election guarantee of providing five lakh jobs to the youth of the state while the Congress blamed the previous BJP government for recruitment scams.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that during the stint of the previous BJP government many recruitment scams like the constable recruitment paper leak cases occurred. “The papers of recruitment exams conducted through the State Staff Selection Board, Hamirpur, were sold and the future of the youth was compromised. Our government has cleaned up the recruitment system. The State Staff Selection Board was scrapped and a Rajya Chayan Aayog was set up in its place,” he added.

Sukhu said that the BJP government handed over the inquiry into the constable recruitment paper leak case to the CBI just before the Assembly elections so that if the next government could not get it probed, he added. He claimed that the Congress government had advertised 20,000 jobs in the past one year.

As soon as the Question Hour began, Randhir Sharma, BJP MLA from Naina Devi, stood up and demanded a debate over the issue of unemployment. Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said that he was ready to give time tomorrow for a discussion over the issue.

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said that unemployment was a vital issue and the government instead of providing jobs to the youth had sacked 1,000 outsourced employees, who were recruited by the previous BJP government during the Covid pandemic.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said that though preference was being given to issues raised by opposition members in the House, they were raising objections to be in media.

When the Chief Minister stood up to speak over the issue, the BJP members started raising slogans and walked out of the House. After the BJP members left the House, Sukhu said that the government was ready for a debate on unemployment. “Our government has advertised 20,000 posts, including 6,500 of TGTs, 1,400 of staff nurses, 9,500 in IPH Department and 1,248 in the Police Department, in the past one year,” he added. He also accused the BJP of destroying the future and careers of the youth of the state during its rule.

Earlier just when the session was about to begin, the BJP MLAs led by Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur held a protest against the failure of the Congress government to fulfil the election guarantee of providing five lakh jobs. They burnt fake “degrees” during the protest against unemployment. Meanwhile, the Congress MLAs also held a protest outside the Assembly against the Union Government for not fulfilling the promise of providing two crore jobs to the youth of the country.

The Chief Minister said in the House that the BJP members had shown disrespect to the degrees issued by Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) by burning them. “The BJP has also shown disrespect to the youth, who have graduated from the HPU,” he added.

The BJP MLAs said that fake degrees were burnt as a symbolic protest. To this, the Chief Minister said that he would not be surprised if the BJP legislators wore sarees and bangles to hold a symbolic protest in future. The BJP members termed Sukhu’s statement as unparliamentary and they raised slogans against the government. However, the matter was resolved during the lunch session with the intervention of the Speaker.