SAD's criticism of employment generation programme based on flawed data: Capt Amarinder

Asking the Akalis -- leaders of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) -- to check their facts before shooting foolishly their mouth on issues of critical interest of Punjab, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday said the very premise of their criticism of his government's employment generation programme was based on flawed data.

The Akalis were only making a fool of themselves with their repetitive attempts to mislead the people with half-baked lies that had absolutely no basis and were completely removed from facts, said Captain Amarinder, in a statement issued here.

Even as he once again hurled hard facts and figures to counter the brazen lies of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on the jobs created by his government in the past three years, the Chief Minister said they had clearly not bothered to understand or analyse the information in the Economic Survey, which they were using as the basis for attacking his government.

The said Economic Survey released by the Union Government clearly stated that the source of data provided on unemployment was the PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) 2017-18 conducted by the Labour Bureau, Government of India. The reference period therein was July 2017 to June 2018, which was barely a year since his government had inherited the mess created by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government in the state, Captain Amarinder pointed out.

Further, the Chief Minister observed that the survey had a very small sample size of 6497 and 6877 persons from rural and urban areas respectively, which translated into a total sample size of just 13374 persons in a population of 2.27 crores.

Further, for youth in the age group of 15-29 years, the sample size was a shocking low of 1870 and 1961 persons for Rural and Urban areas respectively, which meant a total sample size of mere 3831, as against the state's total youth population of 80.58 lakhs in this age group.

Captain Amarinder further pointed out that it had been mentioned in the survey itself by the Government of India that no comparison could be made with previous data on unemployment on the basis of this survey "as the data sources are not strictly comparable."

These clear and categorical facts notwithstanding, the Akalis continue to rave and rant about the dismal employment scenario in Punjab, under the incumbent Congress government, like wayward children who were hell-bent on creating trouble for others, mindless of the consequences, said the Chief Minister.

Instead of apologising for pushing the state into such a terrible mess, with employment at an all-time low under their pathetic anti-people policies during their decade-long rule, the Akalis are trying to spread misinformation to further their petty political interests, Captain Amarinder lashed out.

Apart from this, 20.21 lakh households had been given employment in different MNREGA schemes and 648.26 lakh man-days of employment thus generated, from April 17 to December 31, 2019, he added.

Since these numbers were not difficult to understand, the only feasible explanation for SAD's desperation to undermine his government's success on this count could be their deep sense of frustration at being completely rejected by the people of Punjab, the Chief Minister quipped.

He reiterated his commitment to continue with his efforts until every eligible youth in the state has a sustainable source of income, either through jobs or self-employment. His government's focused efforts to bring more and more industry into the state was also aimed at promoting employment generation, in addition to boosting the economy, he added.