At a time when the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government has a strained relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, a report by the Labour Bureau of India suggested that Bengal’s employment rate was on the rise.
According to the TMC’s official website, the fourth Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey Report revealed that the unemployment rate in 2014 fell to 52 from 74 in 2012-13, the lowest since the survey was conducted.
Unemployment rate is defined as the number of persons unemployed per 1,000 in the labour force. The rates in 2011-12 and 2009-13 were 78 and 113, respectively.
“In terms of lowest unemployment rate, Bengal stands at number 12. The rank was 25 in 2012-13 and 28 in 2011-12. This reflects the steady improvement of the situation. Despite propaganda and criticism by a section of the media and the Opposition parties, West Bengal continues to surge ahead under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. The figures speak for themselves,” the website stated.
Bengal’s Finance and Women Development and Social Welfare departments bagged national awards for their e-taxation and Kanyashree projects, respectively.
The e-taxation project by the Finance department won the silver award under the category of ‘Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering’, while the Kanyashree project won the silver award under the ‘Outstanding Service in Citizen-Centric Service’.