West Bengal to generate 22 lakh jobs in 2016-17: Amit Mitra

IANS | Kolkata | 24 June, 2016: The West Bengal government aims to generate 22 lakh jobs in the current fiscal, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra said on Friday during his budget presentation for the current fiscal in the Assembly.

"We set a target to generate 22 lakhs employment in the 2016-17 financial year," Mitra said.

"We have created 20 lakh employment in 2015-16 against a target of 17.5 lakh. In the last five years, the state created 68 lakh jobs and another two lakh are in the process," Mitra said.

He said the state's aim is to increase employment generation. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) used to create maximum jobs. These sectors are labour intensive and have maximum labour output elasticity.

"We focused in this sector and bank funding to the sector in the last five years has increased which is the highest among states. More bank funding entails more investments in the sector," he said.

State minister proposed to create 732 e-classrooms in the colleges and universities and 2,000 in secondary and higher secondary schools in the first phase. "We allocated Rs 100 crore in the initiative," he said.

The minister allocated Rs 200 crore for the Swami Vivekananda West Bengal Government Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme with an aim to encourage meritorious students to pursue higher studies.