BJP national executive member and J&K chief spokesperson of the party, Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said figures released by the census department belie the NC-Congress government's claims of having improved the employment scenario or overall socio-economic condition in the state during the past five years of its rule.
To the contrary, statistical evidence points that the opposite has happened, he added.
To substantiate his point, Singh said the statistics are too tellingly evident to miss the inference that in Jammu and Kashmir, out of the total population of 1.25 crore, only 43 lakh are employed while the rest 82 lakh are unemployed, which, in other words, means that 65% of the population is jobless notwithstanding the present government's self-proclaimed "heroic" initiatives like Sher-e-Kashmir employment scheme, consolidated salary job scheme, fast-track recruitment policy, etc.
What is even more disturbing, he said, is that the census figures draw a startling conclusion that during the tenure of the present coalition government, the dependency ratio has further increased. If, in the past, four people in a family were dependent on a single bread-earner, today five or six are dependent on a single earning hand in a family, the BJP leader said.
Now that is certainly not a flattering comment on the performance of a government, which came to power five years ago with the promise of not only generating new sources of livelihood or employment but also of providing stipend to every unemployed youth, said Jitendra Singh, while asking that what happened to the ruling party's promise of providing education to all when the literacy rate stands at 67%, far less than the neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
{{/usCountry}}Now that is certainly not a flattering comment on the performance of a government, which came to power five years ago with the promise of not only generating new sources of livelihood or employment but also of providing stipend to every unemployed youth, said Jitendra Singh, while asking that what happened to the ruling party's promise of providing education to all when the literacy rate stands at 67%, far less than the neighbouring Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
{{/usCountry}}As regards to the agriculture sector, Jitendra Singh quoted the census report to point out that taking a cue from the "Twitter-happy" chief minister, more and more youngsters seem to be opting for vocations other than farming as a result of which there is an alarming decline in the population involved in agriculture, regarding which the joint chief principal census officer has himself gone on record to draw an ominous surmise that the day is not far when J&K would have to completely import foodgrains from other states.
Singh also took on the government on the issue of declining sex ratio and asked what happened to the coalition government's much-hyped crackdown on ultrasound clinics and doctors who facilitate female foeticide, as the census reveals a further decline in sex ratio.
Singh added that it is unfortunate to note while the National Conference-led government has swindled its time in futile politicking over issues like AFSPA, there has been all-round deterioration in virtually every sphere because of government's wrong priorities.