Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on March 23 claimed that Assam’s GSDP growth rate nosedived from 15.67 per cent to 6.3 per cent in five years of BJP rule in the state.
The Maharashtra minister said that Assam’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth rate, which was 15.67 per cent in 2015-16 during the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government, the second highest in the country then, dropped to 6.3 per cent in 2019-20 under the BJP regime, pushing the state back to the 20th position.
“In order to bring Assam back on the growth path, the Congress is committed to boost the industry and trade landscape in the state,” he said.
“The BJP government in Assam had promised 25 lakh jobs five years ago, but it provided only 80,000 jobs at a strike rate of only 3 per cent. One of the Congress’ ‘five guarantees’ is to provide five lakh government jobs in a year besides creating 25 lakh private job opportunities,” Chavan told the media.
He said that there are over 60,000 posts lying vacant in more than 35 departments of the state government, while Assam faces severe shortage of resources in multiple departments with respect to the scale of operations.
According to the Congress leader, Assam has a shortage of 40,000 health workers, followed by 38,000 school teachers, 15,000 police personnel, 15,000 doctors and 12,000 college teachers.
Ashok Chavan said the Congress candidates in the poll-bound state are holding in-person question and answer sessions in their constituencies with those who wish to gather more information and have their queries addressed as to how the party aims to provide five lakh government jobs.
Over 1.40 lakh job seekers have registered their names in the Congress’ online portal launched earlier to register the names of the unemployed people.
AICC spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said that after the elections, the new Congress chief minister would take the oath with the party’s ‘five guarantees”.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had released the party’s manifesto for poll-bound Assam on March 20, in which the main promises include restarting the process of National Register of Citizens (NRC), repealing the CAA, Rs 365 daily wage to tea garden workers, 5 lakh jobs in five years, Rs 2,000 per month to housewives and 200 units free electricity per household.
Vallabh said that within six hours after assuming office, the new Congress government would announce a daily wage of Rs 365 each for 10 lakh tea garden workers, while the remaining assurances would be finalised in the first cabinet meeting.
The 126-member Assam assembly will go to the polls in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6. The results will be declared on May 2.
