Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan criticises previous Congress-led govts for unemployment, lower skills

New Delhi: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday criticised the pervious Congress-led governments for unemployment and lack of skills among the country’s youth, saying that those whose three generations were in power are now asking “where are the jobs Modi ji”. “All those whose three generations remained parliamentarians have a resentment in the country that youth have not got employment,” he said at the National Conference of State Ministers on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship here. Pradhan, who is skills development and entrepreneurship minister, said: “Their party remained in power for 7 decades. They are questioning our 48 months service. They are asking where are the jobs Modi ji. Their family was in power for three generations including grandfather, grandmother and father. Mother and son ran father’s show.” [caption id=“attachment_4343933” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. PIB.[/caption] He said job creation and skills development is not a subject for levelling allegations but responsibility. Opposition parties including the Congress have been alleging that there is a jobless growth in the country. Government think tank NITI Aayog had said on Thursday that as many as 35.3 lakh new payrolls registered (jobs created) during the six month period till February this year. On the criticism on jobless growth by opposition, the Aayog had said, “Hopefully this (payroll data) would also end the debate regarding and criticisms about jobless growth in the economy.” Pradhan, who is also the oil minister, urged the states to cooperate so that the level of skilled manpower could be increased, and said India has 10 per cent skilled workforce while US has 100 skilled workers followed by Germany (95 percent), Japan (90 percent) and South Korea (86 percent). He launched a web portal for ITI (industrial training institutes) registration and unveiled new norms for ITI enrolment with more primacy of states. The minister urged the states to come up with suggestions for improving skill development programme in the country saying that Centre, states and industries together spend Rs 25,000 crore on training every year which does not include schooling.