MAPUSA
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday told the Goa Legislative Assembly that the government will amend the act making it mandatory for companies to provide data on employment.
Sawant also said that the process was on to collect data of Goans and non-Goans employed by various companies in the State.
“The government is very serious in providing employment to Goans. At the moment, there is no separate act to make it mandatory for companies to provide data on employment. But by the next assembly we are going to amend the act,” Sawant said.
He said the number of people employed in the private or even government sector is not shared with the Goa employment exchange but henceforward the government will put such a mechanism in place.
The CM was responding during the Question Hour on whether the government has plans to come out with a policy to collect unemployment data through the Labour and Employment department raised by Fatorday MLA Vijai Sardesai.
Cornering the government over its failure to maintain unemployment data and providing jobs to Goans, Sardesai said the State government had adopted a flawed approach in setting targets for job creation and allocating funds for employment generation.
“As per the information provided by the government 50 percent of people employed in the State are non-Goans. The government has neither a policy to create jobs for Goans nor a plan on how to maintain the record of how many youth are provided jobs. This government has an allergy for Goans,” Sardesai said.
Labour Minister, Anatasio (Babush) Monserrate informed that so far 384 private companies have been issued notices for failing to advertise whenever there are vacancies in their companies.
“It is mandatory for private companies to advertise posts especially in local newspapers so that the local youth come to know about it,” Monserrate said.
He said the government had no plans to implement a policy requiring the Labour Department to collect unemployment data but the process has already been initiated to collect data on employment.
Velim MLA Cruz Silva said in the last three years only 19 candidates out of over one lakh names sponsored by the employment exchange received jobs.
“Goa stands second on the rate of unemployment as per data provided by the central government. What is the Goa government’s stand on this,” Silva asked.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas said since the government has failed to provide 80 percent job reservation for Goans, the government should come out with a white paper showing the number of jobs it can provide to Goans from next year onwards.
The Labour Minister informed that the State government did not agree with the data on employment provided by the central agency especially because they have not stated its mode of calculating the figure.
He further said in many cases youth who have registered with the employment exchange do not want to inform that they are employed in private companies simply because they yearn for a government job.
