Khanduri stays non-committal on 50,000 jobs

Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri on Monday said his government has launched efforts to bring down the non-plan expenditure but remained non-committal regarding the announcement for creating 50,000 new jobs.

“We will see what we can do,” said Khanduri when asked whether he would fulfil the announcement made by his predecessor, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, regarding the creation of 50,000 jobs.

However, Khanduri said his government has launched efforts to bring down the ballooning non-plan expenditure. A provision of Rs 10334.57 crore has been made in the current financial year for the non-plan expenditure which is considered to be very high against the total expenditure of Rs 19366.91 crore.

Under the social sector, Rs 7056.77 crore expenditure is estimated this year which is 26 per cent more than the previous year.

Experts said the government is virtually facing an uphill task to fulfil the previous announcements as well as various other development works due to financial constraints.

Khanduri’s comments came at a time when Assembly elections are round the corner in Uttarakhand.

Rising unemployment in the hill state is compounding the worries of the ruling BJP, which is facing a stiff anti-incumbency factor coupled with a series of corruption scandals.

According to planning minister Prakash Pant, there are nearly 580,000 unemployed youths in the state. These youths hold the key to the next Assembly elections in the hill state with a total population of nearly ten million. “We are taking steps to provide jobs to the unemployed youths,” said Pant.

Nishank had chalked out a plan to create nearly 100,000 new jobs but did not fulfil the promise during his tenure. After the change of guard, the focus has now shifted on Khanduri with the party looking at him with high hopes.

With barely four months left for the elections, the worries for BJP are increasing. Top party leaders have already approached Khanduri urging him to provide jobs to the unemployed youths.