Amit Shah side-steps Labour Minister's 'jobless growth' remark, says latter hadn't factored in tourism and aviation

BJP national president Amit Shah on Saturday defended union minister Bandaru Dattatreya's remark that economic growth was not translating into more employment, saying, job creation in tourism and aviation sectors was not factored in by the latter.

In his reaction to Dattatreya's statement, Shah who was speaking to reporters here said, "The investment made in various sectors, including through programmes like Make in India, is bringing in more funds and would create jobs. "In case of labour minister's remarks, the data he had did not have details of job creation through tourism and aviation sector." Dattatreya, who holds labour portfolio had on May 31 in Mumbai conceded that the growth of the economy was not translating into more employment.

He had also said that a taskforce has been set up to compile figures of jobs generated in the last three years. Shah also gave a reference of Mudra bank, which at national level has helped seven crore youth get different types of jobs. "As many as 7.64 crore youth have got employment through Mudra bank. The loan amount that is disbursed by the bank varies from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 lakh. These people turned from job seekers to job-generators," he said.

It was said that nationalisation of banks then (Indira Gandhi period) would help the poor but it never worked out. On the other hand, BJP government has extended loan to people without any guarantee through Mudra bank, Shah said.