Congress blasts Guj govt on bad state of small, medium industry

While on one hand the state government claims of development and employment, on the other hand, around 80,000 small and medium scale industries were closed down during BJP's rule in the last 17 years, alleged Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi on Sunday.

He further said that once chemicals and dye-stuff industries, Brass industry, textile, pharmaceutical spare parts, oil engine spare parts, ceramic were Gujarat's identities, which have now closed down. "When Congress was in power, it had set up special industrial schemes, which used to provide employment at the local level. However, it does not function well today in BJP's rule," he lamented, adding that the number of government and granted institutions are decreasing rapidly and are witnessing closure today.

Continuing with his allegations, Doshi said that in official government records, the state has presently 10 lakh educated unemployed and more than 15 lakh people have registered themselves with the government for any kind of occupation. "In Sachivalaya, out of 17 departments, more than 70,000 positions are vacant," he added. Similarly, in the 16 government engineering colleges and 26 government diploma engineering colleges, only four colleges have permanent lecturers.  Stating that more than 60% of seats pertaining to administrative officials are vacant in state's educational institutions, he added that at present more than 1 lakh PTC and Bed educated candidates who are still jobless. Moreover, in the 145 government and 107 grant in aid training institutes, instructors and workshop conductors' posts are vacant, Doshi said. "As the elections are near, the state government has begun to mislead the youth by organizing job melas and other activities," Doshi added.