Taken steps to clean up government recruitment process: Deb

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb Wednesday said his government has made efforts to weed out corruption, nepotism and irregularities in government recruitment process, soon after coming to power last year.

He said that by introducing the "fair employment policy" for jobs, his government ensured that the state's youth benefitted from it.

"We have already recruited 983 teachers through Teachers Eligibility Test conducted through Teachers Recruitment Board in the education department. Other departments are also working on necessary recruitment processes," Deb told the Assembly in a written reply to BJP MLA Ranjit Das' query.

Das had sought to know the "practical plans" of the government for the unemployed youths of the state.

The chief minister said that his government is attaching a lot of importance to the tourism potential for creating new jobs.

Slamming the former Left Front government for failing to harness the state's tourism potential, Deb said his government is taking steps to explore spiritual tourism, heritage tourism and eco tourism.

He said unemployed youths are benefitting from job fairs organized under National Career Service Scheme; unskilled labourers are drawing benefit from MGNREGA and aspiring youths are given training under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana.

This apart, loans are being sanctioned to small, micro and medium enterprises.

Deb said 2,014 vacancies in Tripura State Rifles (TSR) would be filled up to raise two additional India Reserve (IR) battalions of the counter-insurgency force.

A Land Custom Station (LCS) would also be set up at Sonamura in Sepahijala district, 50 km from here, to boost trade with neighbouring Bangladesh, he said.

A food park at Tulakona in West Tripura district, which was inaugurated on Debruary 20, would also create many employment opportunities in the state, he said.

The Chief Minister also said efforts are being made to develop Tripura as an Information Technology (IT) hub, with a multi storeyed tower proposed on a government plot.

Deb also said that his government has been working on a series of "realistic plans and programmes" to ensure jobs for unemployed youths in the state.