Major Boost for Under Fire Kamal Nath Govt as Unemployment Rate Falls to 4.2% in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: Under fire from Bharatiya Janata Party over accusations of failure in the first ten months of his rule, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday received a major boost as an independent monitoring agency in its report claimed that joblessness has declined in MP in the last nine months.

In its report for September, 2019, Mumbai based private firm, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), claimed that unemployment rate in MP has dipped to 4.2% in the last nine months.

According to the report, joblessness is still high in neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan with unemployment rates of 8.6 per cent and 7.4 per cent respectively. Both the states are also ruled by the Congress party.

Buoyed by the report, CM Kamal Nath on Monday tweeted: “Due to the mis-governance of the BJP, the unemployment rate had soared to 7% but the Congress government has shattered the joblessness under its rule. With the efficient policies, we have managed to bring down the unemployment rate by 40%.”

PC Sharma, the public relations minister, credited the turnaround in MP to the implementation of the Chhindwara model across the state. Meanwhile, the BJP has rejected the outcome of the report.

Abhilash Pandey, the president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, belied the data mentioned in the report. “We would soon reach out to the youth in the state at mandal and booth level and would prepare database of jobless youths,” Pandey added.

CMIE--the private firm established in year 1976, had earlier reported that during the last one year of the BJP rule, the unemployment rate had surged to 7% from paltry a 1.2% in June 2017.

This phase of the 15-year BJP rule was also marred by persistent protests from Berozgar Sena, a volunteer organisation underlining the plight of joblessness in MP.

Akshay Hunka, the former convener of Berozgar Sena who later joined Congress, speaking to News18 claimed that Congress government has infused positivity in the state economy.

It is heartening to note that MP is recording surge in job creation at a time when the entire country is reeling under economic sluggishness, Hunka said.