NEW DELHI Rejecting allegations of rising unemployment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said crores of new jobs have been created in formal and unorganised sectors including transport, hotels and infrastructure.
Jobs have been created both in informal and formal sectors, he said in Lok Sabha, citing data from provident fund and National Pension System (NPS), Income Tax filings and sale of vehicles among others.
The strong rebuttal came amid allegations of jobless growth under the Modi government.
Replying to the debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to Parliament, Modi said informal sector accounts for 85-90 per cent while the formal sector provides only 10-15 per cent employment in the country.
The Prime Minister said in 15 months till November 2018, 1.8 crore people got enrolled in the Employees Provident Fund for the first time. Of these 64 per cent were below 28 years of age.
As many as 65 lakh employees were part of NPS system in 2014 which has increased to 1.2 crore by October 2018.
About 6.35 lakh new professionals have filed income tax returns in the last four year.
“Isn’t this indication of job creation,” the PM quipped on the repeated barbs of opposition leaders on employment situation in the country.
Referring to the informal sector, he said, 36 lakh new large trucks/commercial vehicles, 1.5 crore passenger vehicles and 27 lakh new autos were sold.
Have those been bought for parking, he said, adding they are not included in the job data. Modi said there is no correct system of collecting job data at present and his government is trying to put one in place.
He said 1.25 crore opportunities were created in hotel industry, 1.5 crore in tourism, besides a large number of jobs have been created by cab aggregators and through Mudra scheme.
Cab aggregators are app based but vehicles are not “driver-less,” Modi said as he reeled out data on jobs created in different sectors.
He also took a jibe at previous non-BJP governments saying that in earlier times odd jobs created even in STD booths were cited in Parliament.
The government has launched several initiatives like Skill India, Stand-Up India and Digital India aimed at promoting self employment in the country.
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