Amid opposition clamour of ‘lost’ investments and employment opportunities for local youth, the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government on Thursday formally announced that 75,000 youth would be given government jobs in this year.
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While Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had already informed of the government’s decision a fortnight earlier, in tandem with Prime Minister Modi’s ‘PM Rojgar Mela’, the announcement was officially made on Thursday at the State-level employment fair.
As a first step, 600 youths were given appointment letters in Mumbai while 2000 youth got their letters across the State.
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Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Fadnavis said that within a week, 18,500 posts would be announced for the Police Department and within a month, 10,500 vacant posts would be filled in the Rural Development department.
In a thinly-veiled criticism of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government (of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress) as well as previous Congress-NCP governments in the State, Mr. Fadnavis alleged that there had been “an undeclared prohibition” on filling-up government posts for the last 15-20 years.
“Our government decided to put an end to this practice…only if youth enter the administration in large numbers will its efficiency increase,” said Mr. Fadnavis.
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‘Smooth recruitment’
In a jibe at the opposition MVA, the Deputy CM stressed that the police recruitment process as well as other government department recruitments would take place in “a smooth and transparent” manner, unlike the chaos that had bedevilled such processes in the past.
During the tenure of the MVA, students had been agitated by the repeated postponements of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exams (no less than five times between 2019 and 2021) and the controversy associated (awarding the conduct of the exams to a blacklisted agency) with the exams to fill long-pending vacant posts in the State Medical Department.
Alluding to them, Mr. Fadnavis said, “The kind of scams that had occurred in the past few years in these processes [to fill posts in government departments] had put strong doubts in the minds of students whether all their hard-work had any meaning. Hence, our government took a decision to delegate the conduct of government exams to the best agencies with unblemished records and wide experience. Without thinking of the costs, we have selected agencies like TCS to prevent malpractice and manipulation during the conduct of these exams.”
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Meanwhile, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in a bid to offset opposition criticism about projects flying from Maharashtra, said that the Central government fully supported the State government in its efforts.
“Employment opportunities are being created for youth in the State because the Centre is providing funds for many projects. For instance, the Centre has given ₹14,000 crore just for the State urban development department,” he said.
Speaking on the efforts at employment generation, Mr. Shinde said that after 18 months, the new government held a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee where investments worth more than ₹25,000 crore were approved.
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“I will not go into the investments that were allegedly ‘lost’. The Deputy CM has already given detailed replies on that matter. Furthermore, an RTI reply, too, has come on that count [referring to an RTI filed on the Vedanta-Foxconn project],” said Mr. Shinde, in a snub to the MVA.
Advt. in Saamana
Meanwhile, a government advertisement about the employment fair - with pictures of Mr. Shinde and Mr. Fadnavis – on the first page of Saamana, the mouthpiece of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction, has raised political eyebrows.
Given that Mr. Thackeray’s paper had refused advertisements from the rebel Sena leaders on Uddhav Thackeray’s birthday (soon after Mr. Shinde’s revolt), the advertisement pertaining to the employment fair is surprising.
Downplaying the incident, Ambadas Danve, MLC, a staunch Thackeray ally, said it was perfectly all right for a newspaper to accept advertisements from the government or any party.