Nagpur: Union minister Nitin Gadkari has proposed that locals should get preference in jobs, adding a strong legislation will be enacted for this purpose, if need be.
He was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur. “Bhumiputras (sons of soil) should get employment in the projects here at MIHAN (the Multi-modal International Hub Airport),” the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping said.
Likewise, the minister said, at least 1.25 lakh jobs will be created by developing the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Mumbai in the next few years. “I have given directions (to authorities) to ensure that at least 80 per cent of these jobs in the JNPT be given to locals from the coastal Konkan region,” he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, speaking at the event, said many a time, people whose land is acquired, are left out of the development process. ‘‘This is not the case in MIHAN and all development is being undertaken by taking along sons of the soil.
This is our model of inclusive growth in which the last man standing is part of development,” he said. Meanwhile, the job data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, makes grim reading. The unemployment rate in India rose to 7.2 percent in February 2019, the highest since September 2016, up from 5.9 percent in February 2018, the data shows.
Interestingly, the unemployment rate has climbed despite a fall in the number of job seekers, Mahesh Vyas, head of the Mumbai-based think tank told Reuters, citing an estimated fall in the labour force participation rate. The number of employed persons in India was estimated at 400 million in February compared with 406 million a year ago, he said.
