SHILLONG, Sep 26: Concerned over the rising unemployment among the youth of the state and the abject neglect by the state government, the FKJGP has decided to organise a public rally/march on October 21.
The proposed rally will start from Motphran and will culminate at the Malki ground, FKJGP president Dundee C Khongsit told reporters on Monday.
According to him, the federation is unhappy with the state government over its failure to address this burning problem.
“We are concerned about the rising unemployment problem in the state. There has been no concrete step or policy adopted by the government to generate employment opportunities. Besides, we are also witnessing that the government has been showing delay in filling up the sanctioned posts lying vacant in various government departments,” Khongsit said.
He urged the state government to immediately start the recruitment process to fill up all vacant posts while doing away with the contractual appointments which come without any job security.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday admitted that unemployment is one of the biggest challenges that any government faces.
“As the government we are concerned and we have realised that the only way to tackle this problem is to promote entrepreneurship in order to ensure that we have small-scale businesses coming up. We should be able to provide services when it comes to sectors like vehicles and transportation,” Sangma said.
He said his government was trying to generate employment opportunities through setting up of homestays or tourism vehicles or agriculture vehicles and even through the PRIME programme where over 1,000 entrepreneurs have been supported.
The CM also said that the government is promoting self-help group movements at the grassroots level which is aimed at employment generation through creation of jobs.
Making it clear that the government was not denying the problem of unemployment, Sangma pointed to the national records which show that Meghalaya is doing comparatively better than other states.
Observing that unemployment is dynamic situation and it keeps changing with times, he said: “We are doing our best through various programmes to address this issue.”
On his government’s failure to initiate the recruitment process for filling up the vacant sanctioned posts, Sangma said they have advertised for more than 2,300 posts are interviews were under way.
He disclosed that 1,300 contractual teachers have already been appointed to vacant posts.
“At various levels around 4,500 appointments are under process. This shows that the government is taking action,” he said, while pointing out to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic which stalled the recruitment process.
