Job creation a huge challenge, says KTR

Hyderabad: Industries and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said that the state government was giving the utmost priority to job creation to address the unemployment problem effectively.

He said all the governments in the country, be it state or at Centre-level, are facing a major challenge in the form of job creation as more and more youth are getting educated, acquiring requisite skills and awaiting jobs. "The Telangana government has laid a special focus on the job creation in the private sector from day one. Since jobs in the government sector are very limited, it is difficult to provide employment to all. To address this issue, Chief Minister KCR garu brought pro-industrial policy TS-iPASS, which we could attract over 20,000 industries since 2015 and provided jobs to nearly 16.50 lakh people," KTR said.

Speaking after inaugurating the Business Facilitation Centre and Model Career Centre of the industry body Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) at Saifabad on Wednesday, he said several industrialists and investors from other states were seeking schemes being implemented by Telangana in their respective states. “The development and welfare programmes implemented by Telangana in the past eight years have become an inspiration to other states in the country.” Only the opposition parties fail to recognise them," he remarked.

Stating that the empowerment of Dalits — socially and economically — remained the top priority of the TRS government, he said, "The CM has brought Dalit Bandhu, T-Pride schemes and several other schemes for the empowerment and welfare of Dalits. The responsibility of utilising these schemes effectively lies with beneficiaries."

Rama Rao expressed concern over the majority of the Dalit Bandhu
beneficiaries opting for vehicles. He said efforts were being made to
discourage people from opting to purchase vehicles including cars, tractors, harvesters and others under the Dalit Bandhu and T-Pride schemes.

“The increasing number of vehicles will reduce the demand and affect the economic growth of the beneficiaries. Instead, the focus will be on
encouraging a group of beneficiaries coming together to set up manufacturing units as they will provide employment opportunities,” he said.

He explained that Dalit Bandhu is not a dole but an affirmative action to
create new opportunities, create and distribute wealth. “Many want to see
Dalit Bandhu scheme fail to politically attack our government,” he said,
adding that the Telangana government is also focused on STs, OBCs, and
economically backward classes.

"Our focus is alleviating poverty (gharibi hatao) and not removing the poor
(gharibon ko hatao) being adopted by the Modi Government,” he said.