“Highly exaggerated”: P Chidambaram on Centre's job claim in Budget 2024

Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram on July 23 said India's unemployment rate is 9.2 percent and Centre's claim that its employment schemes will benefit 290 lakh persons is “highly exaggerated.”

“Unemployment is the biggest challenge facing the country. For a few dozen vacancies or a few thousand posts, millions of candidates apply and write an examination or appear for an interview. According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the all India unemployment rate is 9.2 per cent,” said Chidambaram.

The Congress leader claimed that the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has virtually adopted the ideas underlying Congress' proposals on employment-linked incentive scheme, the apprenticeship scheme with an allowance to the apprentice and on the abolition of the angel tax.

“I wish she had adopted many more ideas from the Congress’ manifesto. The response of the government towards employment is too little and will have only little impact on the grave unemployment situation across the country. The claim that the schemes announced by the FM will benefit 290 lakh persons is highly exaggerated,” said Chidambaram.

“Inflation is the other major challenge. Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation is 3.4 percent, Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) is 5.1 percent, and food inflation is 9.4 per cent,” he added.

The Economic Survey dismissed the issue of inflation in a few short sentences and the finance minister “dismissed” it in ten words in para 3 of her speech, said Chidambaram.

“We deplore the casual attitude of the government and nothing in the budget speech gives us the confidence that the government will seriously tackle the issue of inflation,” he said.

The former finance minister also talked about the education sector, saying the school education is widespread but of poor quality.

“Nearly one-half of the children are unable to read or write a simple text in any language and are numerically challenged. They are not fit for any skilled job. The central government must drive and help the states address these fundamental problems,” he added.

Taking a swipe at the BJP-led NDA government, Chidambaram said that other issue concerning education is NEET and the scandal-ridden National Testing Agency and alleged there was response from the government.