Panaji: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said that the upcoming State Budget will give special push to the traditional vocations as means to curb unemployment ratio.
Sawant admitted that the unemployment is an issue in the State but said that the figures which projected putting Goa as with highest unemployment ratio were wrong.
“I asked State Labour and Employment Department to check data on the umemployment ratio and we found that the figures which are shown through some national surveys are wrong,” he told in an interview, which was aired on “Doordarshan” on the eve of New Year.
As per the data published by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), unemployment in Goa had hit all-time high of 34.5 per cent in November.
Admitting that there is unemployment in the State, Sawant said that government is searching for the reasons for the same.
“The Goans youth either want government jobs or permanent jobs in the private sector. The percentage of Goan youth appearing in Competitive exams like IAS, Railway Board is only 3-4 per cent,” he said.
He said that State government is working towards ensuring that traditional businesses are left with the Goans, and not taken over by non-Goans.
“In the upcoming State Budget we will give special push for promoting traditional vocations in the State,” Sawant said.
“We want that the traditional businesses like agricuture, horticulture or others should remain with Goans,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that there is need to change the mentality of the people towards traditional businesses. “It may not happen overnight, it might take one or two years to have this change in mentality,” Sawant said.
Speaking about the New Educational Policy, Sawant said that the education should be linked to employment opportunities.
“There is no vertical mobility for many courses. What is the use of studying when there is no vertical mobility in those courses. They don’t even figure in government’s recruitment rules. Some of these courses have to be stopped and we need to introduce the skill oriented courses,” he said.
“Skill Development department has already started working on it,” Sawant added.
