Congress urges new government to reverse economic slowdown

Congress party on Saturday urged the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come up with a multi-phased roadmap to kick-start the economy and evolve an employment generating strategy.

"Slump in economic growth and runaway unemployment are two important challenges before the country. I hope the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister will address them by laying a short-medium-long term roadmap of kick-starting the growth engine as also employment generating strategy," said Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.

Government data showed on Friday that the country recorded a GDP growth of 6.8 per cent in 2018-19, the lowest in five years. In FY 2017-18, the GDP growth rate was 7.2 per cent. The slowdown was largely attributed to lacklustre growth in agriculture and mining sectors.

Data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday also showed that 5.8 per cent of men and 3.8 per cent of women are unemployed in rural India. In urban areas, the numbers are much higher at 7.1 per cent of men and 10.8 per cent women being unemployed.

Congress leader P L Punia also urged the government to take concrete steps to reverse the economic slowdown which, he said, is causing a lot of hardship to people.

The industrial output is down, the manufacturing sector is not growing, resulting in massive unemployment in urban and rural regions across the country, he said.

The news of unemployment in 2017-18 at 6.1 per cent came as when the Cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi began its second term on Friday.