Unemployment is the one such issue which has hit every regime in Jammu & Kashmir state and the previous Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP coal. As the crisis of unemployment has worsened the socio-economic situation during last one decade in Jammu & Kashmir state, the issue is likely to dominate the poll campaigning in the ensuing Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state. In election times politicians promise creation of thousands of jobs but no politician bothers to initiate steps for creating job opportunities in either public or private sector. The creation of posts in government departments is just a routine process for which unfortunately every popular government claims credit. By no standards of administrative understandability the creation of jobs in government departments to continue the routine practice is an initiative of employment generation. The politician seeking votes on the streets these days should understand that unemployment sometimes becomes so dangerous for individuals that they end up suffering from depression and make suicide attempts.
Better for the poll contestants to talk about employment policy but not the creation of thousands and lakhs of jobs in government departments just to appease youth in election times.
One of the big reasons for the rising unemployment in Jammu & Kashmir is that no popular government has bothered to come up with a recruitment policy so for. Consequently the blue eyed bureaucrats with the blessings of their political bosses induct people in violation of recruitment rules in government departments, autonomous organizations and public sector undertakings (PSUs’). Had any popular government bothered to push through an employment policy in the state assembly even for a discussion the law makers would have got an opportunity to debate the importance of vocational education in addressing the crisis of unemployment in the state. Irony of the fact is that even teachers in schools and colleges too show no concern for the introduction of vocational education at different levels of education. More unfortunate for the people of Jammu and Kashmir is the fact that whenever a government comes out with a scheme to counter balance unemployment, people of doubtful integrity come forward to bungle the money allocated to such schemes leading to plans failing in the end. Consequently the favourites including close affiliations of sitting ministers and senior bureaucrats get selected and the deserving candidates are left out. Inefficiency and insincerity in executing results in non-attainment of targets and consequently, unemployment is rising year after year and regime after regime but not addressed to grant opportunities of fair competitions to the youth of the state. So unless and until the politicians ascending to the power corridors of the state don’t show interest in preparing the ground for an employment policies neither job creations in government nor words of appeasement to jobless youth can change the employment scenario in Jammu & Kashmir state. So the political parties engaged in struggle for power in the ongoing assembly elections should stop the conventional practice of promising more and more government jobs and instead promise some initiative for an employment policy. Any bid to continue the conventional practice of promising more and more job to jobless youth won’t fetch politicians contesting assembly election the votes they need to reach the state assembly. So better for the poll contestants to talk about employment policy but not the creation of thousands and lakhs of jobs in government departments just to appease youth in election times.
