How INLD has put Khattar govt on the mat by focusing on unemployment

Politics in Haryana is heating up for both the Lok Sabha and subsequent state assembly polls as the key players have started launching pubic outreach programmes. The opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is presently carrying out a 'Jail Bharo Andolan' in the districts on the emotive issue of completion of Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and water woes of the state. The party is all set to follow this programme with a campaign on another emotive issue of employment.

“The 'Rozgar Mera Adhikar' movement will start once we are through with the Jail Bharo Andolan. We will be going to the youth of the state and tell them how they have been duped on employment by the state government under Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Manohar Lal Khattar. We will be telling the people that we do not want just registrations in the name of employment. The people should get the employment that was promised by the BJP before coming into power at both the Centre and in the state,” said INLD MP Dushyant Chautala.

He has also questioned the much hyped online registration process initiated by the Haryana government saying that the process is so tedious that many people, particularly those in the rural heartland with limited knowledge of computers, find it very difficult to register themselves. “How do you expect these leaders to upload documents ?” he questioned.

Armed with details gathered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, he attacked the government for its hollow claims on employment saying that in 12 districts of the state there are 2,62,768 registered unemployed. Of these only 290 have been provided jobs by the government, which is barely 0.1 per cent of the total registered unemployed. “We had sought details from all the 22 districts but have till now managed to get details only on 12 of them. The same RTI also informs that under the much touted scheme to provide employment of 100 hours to the unemployed youth only 9948 have been provided employment for 100 hours which is only three per cent of the registered youth under the scheme,” he said.

But a much more serious charge leveled by Chautala is about the Khattar government preparing ground for the complete privatisation of education in the state. Again armed with an official letter, he told media persons on Sunday that the government is bypassing constitution bodies like the employment exchanges and the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and employing people in the schools against the 'C' and 'D' category employees through private recruitment agencies on the basis of commission per head. He claimed that all the schools, from primary to Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas will be covered under this new recruitment policy.

He said the this policy has already been endorsed by the chief minister. “The companies selected for the job of recruiting will be handed over a contract for seven years and will get a commission of 2.01 per cent while the teachers will be paid a lump sum amount. My contention is that in spite of having a complete infrastructure in the form of employment exchanges and SSC, they are unable to fill the vacant posts and are instead going out for hiring to benefit a few private companies. Ironically, a large number of the private companies enlisted for carrying out this recruitment are from the home state of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he charged.

He further said that this anti-people and anti-education policy of the government will adversely impact the right of equality of opportunity of the people to seek employment since the teachers will be recruited on the will of the recruitment agency and the authority that has the power to select it. It will also ignore the legal provisions that have made reservation a law to bring about social justice to the backward and the downtrodden.

“By adopting this 'Gujarat model' of outsourcing, the government will also render the Haryana Staff Selection Commission and Employment Exchanges redundant. When you have a system in place, why do you need to hire through private players? Obviously the purpose is to give some financial benefit to some chosen private agencies,” he said while pointing that a large number of the enlisted companies are security agencies that will be enlisting 'multipurpose workers' in schools who would do everything from teaching to other petty jobs. He said that five of the empaneled companies are from Surat alone.

The INLD has demanded that the government withdraw this scheme failing which it will approach the courts. “We have sent a legal notice to the concerned departments demanding that this process be scrapped failing which we will file a public interest litigation in the High Court,” Chautala said.

There has been no response from the government as yet in the form of concrete facts and figures on these serious allegations leveled by the INLD. But BJP leaders have reportedly come out saying that in outsourcing of jobs in Haryana is not a new practice and was there even before the Khattar government came into power. They have also been sarcastically pointing that it is the Chautala family patriarch Om Prakash Chautala who is undergoing a prison sentence in a case pertaining to illegal recruitment of teachers. Allegations and counter allegations are all set to fly as the politicking picks up in the days to come.