PANAJI
With Goa’s unemployment rate recorded fifth highest in the country, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has called NITI Aayog’s findings of over one lakh unemployed youth in Goa, inaccurate.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, a day after a meeting with NITI Ayog’s team in Goa, the CM claimed that 80,000 of around 1.10 lakh Goan candidates registered with the State Employment Exchange are employed in the private sector and some are recruited in the State government.
“NITI Aayog's report that 1.10 lakh are unemployed in Goa is inaccurate. Candidates register to secure jobs in the government, and the fact is that about 80,000 of the total registered with the State Employment Exchange are working in the private sector and a few others are already appointed to different government departments. They have not cancelled their names from the rolls of the Employment Exchange. Only around 20,000 might actually (genuinely) be unemployed,” he said.
Sawant said that the government will work out a system to introduce a new column to specify the employment status of each candidate. The department, he said, has been directed to upgrade its database.
On Wednesday, CM met NITI Aayog’s team in Panaji in the presence of its member V K Saraswat, State Chief Secretary Pennet Kumar Goel and other Secretaries.
Sawant said that NITI Aayog lauded the Goa Electric Mobility promotion policy, adoption of emerging technologies and other policies of the Goa government. “They examined Swayampurna Goa and made some suggestions for the State. They elaborated on how NITI Aayog can support us for various projects,” he said.
