Approval for 16,000 temporary jobs... CHAMLING LAUNCHES `ONE FAMILY, ONE JOB' SCHEME IN SIKKIM

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 21 Dec 2018, Gangtok: The Sikkim Assembly on Thursday approved over 16,000 temporary jobs in different departments as part of the state government's `one family, one job' scheme announced by chief minister Pawan Chamling earlier in the year.

The scheme envisages providing jobs to a member of every family who does not have a government job. "We want to implement the one family, one job scheme im- mediately, and provide about 20,000 jobs to the youths of Sikkim within December. We have allocated maximum funds for this scheme," Chamling told the Assembly.

The chief minister said the short two-day session of the Assembly, which ended on Thursday, was called particularly to execute the job scheme, which is being seen by many as an attempt to woo voters before the Assembly elections due by the middle of next year.

An official source said the scheme would cost the government about Rs 250 crore annually to provide temporary jobs to 20,000 people.

The new recruits will be absorbed into 12 different departments with as many as 3686 posts being created in the roads and bridges department alone. The highest salary of Rs 18,000 per month will be given to junior engineers and the lowest package of Rs 9,000 per month will be given to safai karmacharis, office assis- tants and others. Chamling had on Tues- day said the appointment letters under the scheme would be handed over to the beneficiaries at the `Rozgar Mela' to be organised at the Paljor Stadium here in the first week of January.

Opposition parties have termed the job scheme as a stunt to influence the voters before the Assembly elections. Their contention is that if the government is really serious in providing employment to the youths, it should give them permanent jobs.

The ruling SDF called the scheme a wonderful initiative to address the problem of unemployment in the state. "If the Opposition is calling this a stunt, are they then suggesting that they are opposed to the scheme? Do they have a better scheme?' asked K. T. Gyaltsen, the SDF spokesman.

Gyaltsen said it was not possible to provide permanent jobs to such a huge number of people at one go.