New Delhi, 23 July (UNI) Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday criticised the government’s claim that the employment scheme will benefit 290 lakh persons, calling it “highly exaggerated”.
“Unemployment is the biggest challenge facing the country. For a few dozen vacancies or a few thousand posts, millions of candidates apply and write an examination or appear for an Interview. According to CMIE, the all-India unemployment rate is 9.2 per cent,” Chidambaram noted.
“The response of the government is too little and will have only little impact on the grave unemployment situation. The claim that the schemes announced by the FM will benefit 290 lakh persons is highly exaggerated,“ he said.
Expressing disappointment that more ideas from the Congress Manifesto were not adopted, Chidambaram claimed that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has virtually adopted the ideas underlying Congress’ proposals on an employment-linked incentive scheme, the Apprenticeship Scheme with an allowance to the Apprentice, and on the abolition of the Angel Tax.
He stressed that the agitation to scrap the Agnipath scheme will continue, stating, “Several political parties, including the Congress, have demanded that the ill-conceived and discriminatory Agnipath scheme should be scrapped forthwith and the Armed Forces should resume the time-honoured methods of recruitment.”
Criticising that the Economic Survey dismissed the issue of inflation in a few short sentences, he said, “The Finance Minister dismissed it in ten words in para 3 of her speech. We deplore the casual attitude of the government. And nothing in the Budget Speech gives us the confidence that the government will seriously tackle the issue of inflation.”
Regarding education, he highlighted the poor quality of school education and the need for central government intervention. He criticized the government’s stubbornness on NEET and noted that, despite a budget estimate of Rs 1,16,417 crore for education, only Rs 1,08,878 crore was spent.
“The other issue concerning education is NEET and the scandal-ridden National Testing Agency. Several states have demanded that NEET should be scrapped and the states should be free to adopt their methods of selecting candidates for various courses in medical education.No response. I did not hear the finance minister refer to school education,” he said.
Chidambaram also criticised the handling of public healthcare, stating, “I did not hear the finance minister speak about the grave deficiencies in public healthcare. Moreover, against a Budget allocation of Rs 88,956 crore, the government spent only Rs 79,221 crore.”
“Wages have stagnated in the last 6 years after adjusting for inflation. Between 2017-18 and 2022-23, the average monthly earnings of workers were: self-employed — Rs 12,800; casual/daily labour — Rs 7,400; and regular wage/ labour — Rs 19,750. The minimum wage should be fixed at Rs 400 per day for every kind of employment,” he noted.
Some relief has been given to the tax-paying citizen in the 0-20 per cent tax bracket, he said emphasising, “No relief at all — has been given to the poorer sections of the people, especially those who are non-tax paying wage labourers and casual/daily labourers.”
“The government seems to be blissfully ignorant of its own statistics that wages have stagnated in the last six years while inflation is raging. And such workers are not paid a decent minimum wage,” he added.
“Farmers are mobilising to protest. One of their demands is that the MSP announced that agricultural produce must be backed by a legal guarantee. The Congress had in its Manifesto promised to provide such a guarantee.” Chidambaram said.
He also criticised the government for not addressing the burden of unpaid educational loans, despite speaking about providing new education loans.
“The government has, unusually, spoken about giving education loans. But what about the huge burden of unpaid education loans? Students and their families were hoping that, given the acute unemployment situation, the government would give relief to the current borrowers. They must be bitter and disappointed,” he said.
