Twenty five lakh job vacancies to be created in next five years

Thiruvananthapuram: Governor P. Sathasivam said in the Assembly on Friday that the government proposed to create 25 lakh job opportunities in the next five years.

Of these, 10 lakh jobs would be in Information Technology (IT), Bio-Technology (BT), Tourism, Electronics and other emerging areas and 15 lakh jobs in agriculture, construction, commerce and small industries. The government also aimed to provide skill training to 10 lakh youth.

The Governor said that the State was facing a very vexing development stalemate. He accused that the previous Government’s corrupt, parochial and partisan ends has put resource mobilisation at grave risk. However he asserted that the Government will certainly find creative and practical solutions to these problems.

Mega Infrastructure Projects, he said, will be completed in time and new ones will be taken up. Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode airports and such other infrastructure projects on which broad political consensus have already been reached shall be taken up and completed in a time bound manner. 

Government, Mr. Sathasivam said, will expedite land acquisition for projects, compensating landowners fairly and rehabilitating those who depend on the land to be acquired for their livelihood. The public health system will be strengthened and upgraded radically. The school education system will be revamped to international standards. Universities will be developed to flourish as centres of excellence.

Through the next phase of the People's Campaign, the Government intends to develop Local Self Government (LSGs) as active partners in all spheres to achieve the development goals that this Government has set for itself. Kerala will be made a hunger-free State. Social security pensions will be delivered at the doorsteps of all pensioners.

Government, he said, will introduce Gender Budgeting during the current year itself, followed by Gender Auditing. It will encourage rapid infusion of private investment into the state and shall provide a congenial environment for this.

“We will no doubt attract private investment but that shall be without neglecting the rights of our workers or without breaching our environmental laws.”

Government, he said, shall build on a war footing in the State modernised road systems, rapid railway lines, efficient inland navigation, vibrant air and seaports, industrial parks, assured supply of quality power through leveraging adequate funds outside the budget. This approach would necessitate a higher role for the Government in planning and development. He remarked that the success of such interventions would depend upon generation of adequate financial resources to improve the efficiency of the Government.

The Governor commented that the decision of the Union Government to dispense with the Five Year Plan was acutely short-sighted. Currently, the States and ironically the Centre too, are groping in the dark on national priorities. In the absence of a well orchestrated plan built around national policies, the developmental directions of the Union Government seem rather hazy and rudderless.

He declared that the new Government will continue with five year planning. The preparatory work on drawing up the 13th Five Year Plan will begin shortly.  The Government intends to make planning more professional and scientific. The State Academy on Statistical Administration (SASA) will function as a centre of excellence for training and research studies of official statistics as per with the standards set by the national and international 12 institutes of similar nature.

Block Level Reports on Natural Resources, the Govenor said, will be prepared and used for effective local level planning. The Geo-informatics laboratory will be strengthened as a state level digital data repository for land and water resource management for ensuring better regional and spatial planning.