PANAJI
With the roster swelling beyond 70,000, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday spoke of some curbs on recruitment in the government sector barely three months after having fought and won the February assembly elections largely on the back of providing jobs and also launching a frenzied recruitment drive before the hustings.
Speaking to youth in his Sanquelim constituency at a hospitality career guidance camp, Sawant said the strength of government employees has crossed the 70,000 mark and therefore future intake will be curtailed.
He said, at the most another 10,000 more government can be generated in the near future and urged the youth to explore careers elsewhere.
"Do not totally depend on the government sector for jobs," Sawant said while addressing the youth attending the vocational guidance seminar conducted by the Directorate of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship at the Ravindra Bhavan in his constituency.
Vincent Ramos, who is the vice-president of the Taj hotel group, was the resource person and guided the young on careers in the hospitality trade.
Sawant said, nearly 80 per cent of the workforce in Goa's hospitality sector are from outside the State and urged the youth to grab opportunities in the industry.
Sawant said, when workers were leaving for their home States during the pandemic, this was the reality that almost 80% hospitality sector workforce was from Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other States.
Yet he lamented that youth complain that there are no jobs in Goa.
In the run-up to this year's assembly election, the Sawant-led BJP had made jobs a major promise to woo the electorate. His government had even held the Staff Selection Commission law in abeyance and permitted departments to recruit directly to speed up processes and beat the expected Model Code of Conduct.
