Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday presided over a high-level meeting to set deadlines for the creation of 20 lakh jobs in the next five years, announced in this year’s “Rozgar Budget.”
Terming it a first-of-its-kind experiment in the country, Mr. Kejriwal said he was confident that the AAP government in Delhi would “easily” meet the job creation targets set by each department.
Finance Minister Manish Sisodia had, in his budget for 2022-23, said the government would create employment through policies like the Dilli shopping festival, grade-A retail and food spaces, cloud kitchen policy, and the redevelopment of popular retail markets.
“I believe that our announcement of 20 lakh job opportunities is a very novel move. With all the specific details that we’ve chalked out, I think this is perhaps a first-of-its-kind experiment in the budget-making exercise. The biggest challenge in front of our country is employment,” Mr. Kejriwal told those present at the meeting.
According to the government estimates, there are 1.68 crore citizens out of a population of 2-3 crores in Delhi who are eligible for jobs. However, only a third of the 1.68 crore people are estimated to be employed at the moment.
In his budget speech, Mr. Sisodia had said the government aimed to increase the proportion of those employed from the present 33% to 45% over the next five years.
The blueprint
One of the projects that will be headed by the Tourism Department and DTTDC, is the redevelopment of some of Delhi’s iconic markets, through their promotion, branding and infrastructural facelift. This is expected to generate 1.5 lakh jobs over five years.
Through the Dilli shopping festival, which will also be led by the Tourism Department and DTTDC, the government will host a shopping festival for 4-6 weeks in the months of September to October or between February and March, through which the government aims to generate 1.2 lakh jobs in 5 years.
A scheme for grade-A retail and food spaces will be taken up by the Transport Department - by utilising existing land of bus depots - to create an experiential food and shopping hub that will provide high-quality food within Delhi. This project is estimated to generate 50,000 jobs over 5 years.
The food truck policy, which will also be managed by the Tourism Department, is intended to promote business opportunities for restaurants and cafes in Delhi and generate 1,500 jobs in 5 years.
The cloud kitchen policy will be led by DSIIDC and the Industries Department, which will help set up delivery-only kitchens. It will look at developing a policy to legalise, regularise and facilitate operations of cloud kitchens, with a potential to generate 30,000 jobs in 5 years.
The redevelopment of Gandhinagar as the “Grand Garment Hub” seeks to generate 43,000 new jobs in 5 years.
The “Delhi’s Electronic City” project will see the government setting up clusters of electronics design and manufacturing units, with a potential to generate 85,000 jobs in 5 years/
The Delhi government will also seek to generate “green jobs” through the Delhi solar policy to generate 35,000 jobs.
