GUWAHATI: The Opposition Congress has embarked on an ambitious job drive, three weeks ahead of the Assembly elections in Assam, launching an employment registration website – congressor5guarantee.in here on Thursday.
With this, the party appears to have initiated the spadework for the one of the ‘five guarantees’ it has made to the people of Assam ahead of the Assembly elections.
AICC general secretary (in-charge of Uttar Pradesh), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during her recent two-day visit to Assam, made “five guarantees” – to hike the daily wages of tea garden workers, bring a law to invalidate the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), provide five lakh government jobs, free electricity up to 200 units per household and Rs 2,000 per month to homemakers.
Announcing the launch of the second leg of the “Congressor 5 Guarantee” campaign before the media here, AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh thanked the people of Assam for the warm and enthusiastic response to the Asom Basaon Ahok (Save Assam) campaign.
“The party leadership got the opportunity to reach out to every nook and corner of the state and interact with the people. The one big issue that people from every constituency highlighted was unemployment,” Singh said.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Ripun Bora said that in the last election, “the BJP promised 25 lakh jobs and gave, at best, 80,000. This election, the Congress is guaranteeing five lakh jobs because they are needed in view of the shortage of government staff and for a plan to develop Assam.”
Congress Legislature Party leader, Debabrata Saikia alleged that the private sector has been ruined by the policies of the BJP. “We studied the possibilities in the private sector… we asked economists and experts and came to the conclusion that we can create 25 lakh private sector jobs in Assam in five years,” Saikia said.
“We will reserve a part of government contracts for Assamese companies, and also have reservations for Assamese people in private sector jobs created in Assam. That is how, apart from the 5 lakh jobs, we will create additional 25 lakh private sector jobs in the state,” he explained.
Lok Sabha MP and chairman of the Congress campaign committee, Pradyut Bordoloi said that the state has a shortage of 40,000 health workers, 38,000 school teachers and 12,000 college teachers besides a deficiency of 15,000 policemen.
“We need to create more jobs. The number of sanctioned posts in Assam is meagre, but even in the sanctioned posts the vacancies will surprise you. You will wonder why the BJP did not fill the vacancies,” Bordoloi said.
Lok Sabha MP and Congress manifesto committee chairman, Gaurav Gogoi said, “The issue is not just the posts that haven’t been filled but the posts that need to be created. Everyone will agree that a state so prone to floods as Assam should have a much larger disaster relief force than it does.”
During the launch of the online registration drive by the party on Thursday, at least 101 unemployed youths of the state registered for employment on the website.