New Delhi: Attacking the Centre over unemployment rate in rural areas, Congress said, "The Bharatiya Janta Party is interested only in headline management and not in economy management."
The unemployment rate in rural areas nearly doubled from 2.9 per cent in 2013-14 to 5.3 per cent in 2017-18, informed government on Thursday in the Parliament.
Minister of state for labour and employment Santosh Gangwar replied to a question by Congress MP Kumar Ketkar in Rajya Sabha on the rise of unemployment rate in every quarter.
While speaking to ETV Bharat over this issue, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "Firstly the crude gift of the Bharatiya Janta Party to this country is unemployment. It is their aim to make India job free and the youth of this nation devoid of any employment. It is their gift that the unemployment average of India is double the international average. The focus of this government is only in data fudging and mismanaging the country, rather than providing jobs."
Read: Delhi man kills wife, body recovered after 17 days
"The government is in denial mode. Due to this, the democratic dividend of this country will transfer into a democratic disaster, which is injurious to the health of the economy," he added.
According to the surveys done by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the estimated unemployment rate in rural areas grew from 2.9% in 2013-14, to 3.4% in 2015-16 and 5.3% in 2017-18. In urban areas, unemployment rate first dipped from 4.9% in 2013-14 to 4.4% in 2015-16, before rising sharply to 7.7% in 2017-18.
Jaiveer said, "BJP government is in deep sleep and slumber, who are completely immune to the unemployment problem. The government has not come out with the actual facts and figures as the unemployment rate is actually touching 8 per cent. BJP's mission is to indulge in propaganda by diverting the attention towards politics of hate, violence and religion."