Congress to entice jobless youth

​Hyderabad: The Congress is all set to launch a special drive to make unemployed youth in Telangana vote for the party in the next Assembly elections. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy is giving final touches to a unique campaign wherein the Congress cadre will reach out to unemployed youth through both online and offline mode. 

“The Congress has already promised that it will create lakhs of jobs, both in public and private sectors, if it wins the next Assembly elections. We will also give unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 each to all jobless youth. Through a focussed campaign, we want to convey this message to each and every jobless youth of Telangana,” he said. In the initial phase, the Congress is planning to reach out to at least 10 lakh out of nearly 30 lakh jobless youth. 

“So far, almost 19 lakh youth have done One Time Registration with the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC). However, only 11,629 posts in various departments have been filled through the TSPSC which is just 0.6 percent. Therefore, over 99.4 percent of educated and qualified youth are still jobless. Although caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had promised to fill 110,012 vacancies in 2014, the TSPSC had issued notifications for just 33,276 posts during the last four years and only 11,629 have been filled. These statistics clearly show the gravity of the situation. The Congress will reach out to all 99 percent jobless youth and assure them they would be taken care of if the Congress is voted to power,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

The TPCC chief said the unemployment scenario in Telangana was highly alarming. About 10.58 lakh candidates applied for just 700 posts of VROs. While the minimum education qualification was class XII, the applicants included 372 Ph D holders, 539 had done M Phil, 1.5 lakh of them were post-graduates and 4 lakh candidates were graduates including 2 lakh engineers having a B Tech degree. Similarly, over 5.69 lakh youth applied for 9,355 posts of Junior Panchayat Secretaries. “This shows that there are simply no jobs for highly qualified graduates. The KCR government did nothing to tackle the rising unemployment in Telangana. There are nearly 2.5 lakh vacancies in various departments and other corporations of the State government. No effort was made to create jobs either in public or private sectors,” he said. 

Uttam Kumar Reddy said Telangana became a reality due to the struggle and sacrifices made by students and youth. However, they faced only disappointment under the TRS regime. “The next Congress government will come up with a comprehensive plan to create lakhs of jobs every year. The previous Congress government had initiated Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project which would have created over 50 lakh jobs so far. owever, the TRS government did not pursue the project and both the TRS and the BJP governments have contributed in taking the unemployment level in Telangana to its peak,” the TPCC chief said.