Sharp rise in unemployment in Andhra Pradesh: TD

Kakinada: Telugu Desam (TD) spokesperson S.V.S.N Varma said that unemployment and inflation rates have drastically increased during the past four years of YSRC rule and the state stood second with the highest inflation rate of 7.83 per cent in the country.

He along with TD state organising secretary Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao (Kondababu) and Allumilli Vijaya Kumar told the media here on Saturday that the youths had pinned hopes on the state budget, but the government belied without allocating any funds for employment which resulted in the number of unemployed youths rising to 6.50 lakh per year.

He said that ward and village volunteers can’t be considered as employed. They are paid only Rs 5,000 per month which is not sufficient to live comfortably.

He stated that over 30 lakh youths are yet to get employment and they are facing hardships. He claimed that during the Telugu Desam regime, the government provided skills to 78 lakh youths which helped in employing lakhs of people.

He alleged that the state government has not been able to encourage start-ups or set up industries in the state. He suggested that the state government should invest in road development, irrigation projects and other infrastructure projects which will provide more employment opportunities.

He asserted that the earlier TD government had spent Rs 20,000 crore as capital expenditure whereas the present government has spent only Rs 16,000 crore. Investments in the private sector have also fallen drastically. Growth rate in the private sector fell to 10.4 per cent in 2021-22 as against 32.1 percent in 2018-19, the leader claimed.