Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Monday claimed that Odisha was witnessing a “reverse migration” in the wake of job opportunities opening up both in the public and private sectors due to rapid industrialisation in the state.
Majhi said this while addressing the ‘Nijukti Mela’ where he distributed appointment letters to 1,326 candidates selected for various posts across nine state government departments.
He said the state government, since July, 2024, has provided jobs to 45,408 youths and another about 40,000 employment opportunities in the private sector.
“Now with the government’s recruitment drive and employment availability in industries, the state is witnessing a reverse migration. The people of Odisha who were working in different parts of the state are now returning to Odisha after availability of jobs here,” Majhi said and cited a few examples of how a woman from Salipur in Cuttack district returned from Tirupur to work at an apparel unit in Odisha.
He also cited another example after some technical persons returned to the state to work in a drone-making unit in Odisha.
The chief minister said the process of creating employment opportunities in the state has been intensified through industrial development.
“We are giving full efforts to bring back maximum people working in other states,” he said, adding that the government plans to promote industrial development in every district of Odisha, which would create more local employment opportunities and reduce the need for people to migrate outside the state for work.
Addressing the newly recruited youths, Majhi said success in government service is not measured by position, but by the change one can bring in the lives of citizens. The new recruitments were made in the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Energy, Agriculture and Farmer Empowerment, Fisheries and Animal Resources, Health and Family Welfare, e Skill Development and Technical Education and Excise.
The CM explained that the purpose of recruitment in the government sector is to enhance human resources so that the state’s budget could be utilised properly and not get affected due to lack of manpower. “Our goal is to reach all government facilities to the people at the bottom of the society, and this can be done if we have the required number of staff,” the chief minister said.
While congratulating the new staff, the chief minister cautioned them to keep away from corruption and ‘seva’ (service) must be the goal of their jobs.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJD rejected the chief minister’s claim of providing jobs to over 45,000 people in the government sector since June, 2024.
“The BJP government has completely failed to fulfil the promises it made during the elections in the field of employment. The state government’s claim of having provided employment to 45,000 youth in the last two years is misleading, as advertisements for nearly 39,000 of these appointments had already been issued during the tenure of the Naveen Patnaik government,” BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty told reporters.
He said, “This means that the BJP government has made only 6,000 fresh appointments to government posts. This clearly shows that the BJP has failed to fulfil the promises it made in the field of employment during the last two years.”
Mohanty said that the BJP had promised to provide 1.5 lakh government jobs in five years. Accordingly, it should have provided employment to 65,000 persons in two years, but it has made appointments to only 6,000 posts, he added.
The BJD alleged that during the 24 months of the BJP government, 24 examinations have been cancelled, which demonstrates the government’s lack of competence in handling the recruitment process.
After the BJP came to power, the unemployment rate in the state has increased from 0.9 per cent to 3.5 per cent, Mohanty said and sought clarification from the government.
