Modi rejects Congress charge on unemployment, blames opposition party

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday rejected the Congress accusation against his government of not creating enough jobs and claimed that several of its initiatives led to the creation of jobs in the public and private sectors.

Modi, in turn, held the Congress responsible for the unemployment situation and accused it of opposing technologies/initiatives like the EVMs and Aadhaar.

"With emphasis on public and private sectors, we are also focussing on personal sector for employment. The pace of work on the infrastructure projects has been increased," Modi said in response to a query while addressing Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha 'karyakartas' through his NaMo app.

Highlighting how the National Democratic Alliance government was strengthening the personal sector, he said that the country's infrastructure sector was growing rapidly and added that without employing more people it was not possible to achieve this growth.

He mentioned a World Bank report on easing business environment in India and how through the Mudra Yojana a platform was being provided to budding entrepreneurs across the country.

Modi said that due to the government initiative, India had emerged as the best destination for foreign investment and this has been approved by various credit agencies.

"The Foreign Direct Investment in India has reached its highest level, which is consistently increasing," he said.

The Prime Minister said that under the Mudra Yojana, loans of Rs 1.27 crore have been disbursed to the youth of Karnataka without any collateral.

"This constitutes 11 per cent of the total Mudra loans disbursed so far. Youngsters are not only becoming self-dependent, but also creating jobs for others," he said.

Modi said that in the last few years, immense growth was seen in the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) accounts.

"Due to demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, there has been a great change in the formal sector. Workers are getting proper benefits in the social sector. The figures of EPFO accounts prove that there has been growth in the formal sector," he said.

Dubbing the Congress criticism on employment and job creation fronts as a "conspiracy", he said that the opposition party has been putting the blame on the BJP government because it failed to do anything during its 10-year rule from 2004-14.

"The Congress has nothing to say about its own achievements. They ruled the country for 60 years and what did they do for employment generation? If there is unemployment, is that due to four years of our government? So, they find it easy to accuse us and spread lies," he said.

Modi said that the Congress is spreading lies and hatching conspiracies to put the onus on the NDA government for its own failures.

Terming employment generation as the "biggest problem" in the country, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been attacking the Centre for not fulfilling the promise of creating two crore jobs every year, which the BJP made ahead of the 2014 elections.

Responding to a query over rising political violence, the Prime Minister said there can be no place for such violence in Indian democracy.

"But of late, I have seen that such violence is on the rise in some states. In Karnataka too, we have seen how brutally our 'karyakartas' have been murdered. It's highly condemnable.

"Violence in any form should not be allowed by any political party or ideology in democracy. I appeal to BJP's youth workers in Karnataka not to act with vengeance even when they have lost their several colleagues in political violence," he added.

Modi accused the Congress of opposing technologies/gadgets like the Electronic Voting Machines and the Aadhaar initiative and noted how the BJP was promoting technology in every sector.

"In this age of Artificial Intelligence, India cannot lag behind. Through technology, we are promoting skill development," he said.

On a question on strengthening the demographic dividends of the country, he said that the government's stress was on quality of education and quantity of opportunities.

"The government is committed to increased higher education facilities," he said while shedding light on the Atal Innovation Mission. He said the initiative was promoting research and scientific temper among the students.

--IANS

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