Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Wednesday expressed grave concern on CMIE figures on unemployment rate in J&K saying the 21.6 percent unemployment rate belies all the claims of incumbent J&K administration on providing employment to educated, skilled youth of Jammu and Kashmir.
Saying that the CMIE figures have exposed the underbelly of JK on unemployment, Party Spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said, “The figures lay bare the hoax of much touted Job extravaganza promised by GOI after the unconstitutional abrogation of Art 370 on August 5, 2019. These figures placing JK lower than the national average have busted their fake narrative and punctured the cosmetic development pomp and show of GOI, and the incumbent JK Admin.”
“Besides peace and tranquillity sliding backwards, J&K has seen choking employment since 2019. CMIE data attests to this fact. J&K registering 21.6 percent unemployment rate is a compelling evidence of the prevailing situation in JK. In addition, the combined unemployment ratio revealed by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation has also revealed the grave unemployment at staggering 17.8 percent, which is also higher than the national average,” he said.
Contrary to the claims of GOI, he stated that post-August 2019 decisions have been followed by marked and gross narrowing of job opportunities of our JK youth.
“The GOI’s policies premising on terminating employees and outsourcing the recruitment have further aggravated the problem. Of late some posts were advertised for which exams were also held by JKSSB but the process has unfortunately hit the skids. What is adding to worries of our youth is the failure of the government to come up with a sound absorption policy at college, and university level,” he said.
He further said that the failure of the GOI in addressing the soaring unemployment in JK has become one of the factors for suicides, drug addiction, and substance use. “Our educated youth see no light at the end of the tunnel. The administration is doing nothing to help them. Lack of substantial policy intervention to give a flip to entrepreneurship, fast-tracking of recruitment, and protecting the employment interests of our youth is a far cry and not in the to-do list of the government. If this policy paralysis persists, our youth would be pushed to the wall,” he added.
