MP to create 1 lakh govt jobs, abolish contractual employment: CM

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said today his government would create one lakh jobs in various departments and abolish the contractual employment system soon.

He also said that the retirement age of employees of government departments, civic bodies, corporations and courts would be raised to 62 years from the current 60.

The announcements come at a time when state Assembly elections are slated for later this year and data tabled in the House recently showed only 19,226 jobs were created in government departments in 14 years of BJP rule.

"The contractual employment system is unjust. And it is going to be abolished (in government departments)," he told representatives of employees' unions who had called on him at his residence in Bhopal.

He, however, did not give a time frame for the abolition but stated that a meeting with contractual employees would be convened soon.

Chouhan said one lakh jobs would be generated in various government departments. Recruitment of 31,000 teachers, assistant teachers and professors would be made soon and the vacancies would be advertised this month, he said.

The government had, yesterday, issued a statement claiming that it would recruit 89,000 people over the next a few months.

The decision to increase the retirement age has drawn criticism from the opposition Congress, and other parties, which said it amounted to "deceiving" the 1.5 crore educated, unemployed youth in Madhya Pradesh.

According to data tabled in the Legislative Assembly recently, only 19,226 people have got jobs in different government departments in the past 14 years of BJP rule, an average of 1,373 jobs per year.

The opposition Congress alleged that increasing the retirement age did not amount to much, with its chief spokesperson K K Mishra claiming that just 27 per cent of the 4.5 lakh government employees would benefit.

Mishra said the retirement age for doctors and nurses in the health department was already 65 years and 62 years respectively, while it was 62 in a few other departments.

He alleged that it had been increased because the state government was short of Rs 20,000 crore to pay retirement benefits to staffers on the verge of superannuating.