Akhilesh Yadav slams state government over job crisis, caste bias and “Thar-bulldozer” politics

Akhilesh Yadav has once again attacked the state government for trying to scare people off through ‘Thar aur bulldozers’, while not paying attention to the growing unemployment levels and insecurity.

Yadav was addressing the media after a meeting with members of the Lohia Vahini—an organisational wing committed to propagating the ideas of Socialist idealogue Ram Manohar Lohia.

He said that the young were the ones who would protect the country’s Constitution and the right to reservation. Yet, they were plagued by either a lack of employment, underemployment or unfair wages. He also questioned the government about the increased privatisation of education, which he said had put it out of the reach of the economically weak, and even the middle class.

While UP Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, had recently said that the state’s unemployment rate had come down to 2.4%, Yadav pointed out that if—by the government’s own figures—Rs 36 lakh crores had been disbursed to 52 crore people under the MUDRA scheme, there should not have been a single unemployed person in the state.

The Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) provides loans of upto Rs 10 lakhs to non-corporate and non-farm small/micro enterprises. According to the latest figures available on the scheme’s website, money in excess of Rs 5,41,012 crores had been disbursed under the scheme.

Yadav also brought up the recent attack by the Karni Sena on MP Ramji Lal Suman, saying that such attacks were only possible because these elements had the cover of the state government. An issue he only recently brought up, he claimed that the Thakurs and other such castes dominated postings in police stations. Today, he cited the example of Kushinagar, where he said there was only one member of the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) community posted in-charge of a police station there.

The state’s DGP, Prashant Kumar, had denied that caste had any role to play in appointments as Station House Officers or Station Officers in the state. However, the Samajwadi Party chief said that the DGP supported such discriminatory appointments, as he shared the thinking of the state government which supported people from certain castes.

India