AAP launches 'jobs for all' initiative in poll-bound Goa

Panaji, Sep 7 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday launched a 'jobs for all' movement in Goa, which, according to the party's Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha, would help ease the unemployment rate in the state as well as reverse the 'brain drain' which is being witnessed in the poll-bound state.

Addressing a press conference here, Chaddha, who's also the vice-chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, launched a website -- www.jobsforallgoans.in -- as part of the party's movement to tackle unemployment.

"This (unemployment) is the biggest issue, the biggest problem that the people of Goa are facing today. In terms of level of literacy, Goa is very good but when it comes to employment, Goa is the worst. That means despite being literate, people of Goa do not have jobs. Today, in the whole country, Goa has the third highest unemployment rate," Chadha said.

"There is an impression across the country that Goa is a state where nobody goes to sleep hungry. But today the BJP and the Congress have put Goa in top three in the country in terms of unemployment. Goa has an unemployment rate of 21.1 per cent. In the last six months, it rose from 15 per cent to 21 per cent," Chaddha said, adding that the rate in which unemployment is increasing in Goa is a cause for worry.

"Even your investments are not growing as fast as the unemployment rate," Chaddha said.

The AAP's promised intervention to create employment in Goa comes at a time when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself has repeatedly expressed concern about the unemployment levels in the state.

As part of a major pre-poll announcement, Sawant has said that the government would recruit around 10,000 youth in government jobs in the months leading to the elections scheduled next year.