‘PM must release White Paper on employment generation'

Former minister H C Mahadevappa challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the White Paper on employment generation from the year 2014.

In a press conference here on Wednesday, Mahadevappa said, Modi had promised to generate employment opportunities for around five crore people but failed to keep his promise.

He also alleged that the Modi government is trying to weaken reservation in employment. Due to privatisation, the job opportunities have been on the decline and reservation weakened, he said.

The Union government had conducted a survey and identified 89,000 vacant backlog posts in 2014. The government is conspiring to stop recruitment to these posts to weaken reservation, he alleged.

Mahadevappa said the BJP government has failed in protecting the social justice and it is difficult for those who oppose the Indian Constitution to survive.

Condoling the death of BJP leader Ananth Kumar, Mahadevappa said, Kumar was acting as a bridge between the state and the Union government.

“Ananth Kumar had appreciated me for holding a meeting with all the MPs of the state in connection with the development works when I was the PWD minister,” he recalled.

Mahadevappa urged the state government to identify the backlog of vacant posts and take measures to fill them.

He also requested to finalise the issue related to reservations in promotion to
Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes at the earliest.

When asked about his defeat in previous Assembly elections, Mahadevappa said, he had to suffer defeat due to caste polarisation and said caste politics poses a threat to a healthy nation. “Caste raided over the development,” Mahadevappa said.

When asked about the style of functioning of JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state, Mahadevappa said, Congress joined hands with the JD(S) to ensure social justice and the parties stand by secularism. “We joined hands to prevent fascism in the state,” he said. In reply to a query on the alleged irregularities such as transfers in Public Works Department (PWD), Mahadevappa said, he has no adequate information and it is premature to comment about the style of functioning of Public Works Minister H D Revanna.

Speaking about the absence of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara for the Tipu Jayanti celebrations on November 10, Mahadevappa said, the leaders had informed earlier about it and there is no difference of opinion in the celebration.

Mahadevappa also claimed that he has no difference of opinion with former chief minister and coalition government coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah. “We have maintained a good rapport for the past 35 years,” Mahadevappa said.