Goa budget to give push to traditional businesses: Sawant

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said the next state budget will lay a special thrust on traditional businesses to reduce unemployment. He admitted that unemployment is an issue in Goa, but said the figures projecting the state as having the highest unemployment ratio were wrong.

"I asked the state labour and employment department to check data on the unemployment ratio and we found that the figures which are shown through some national surveys are wrong," Sawant said in an interview telecast on 'Doordarshan' on Tuesday.

As per data published by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), unemployment in Goa hit an all-time high of 34.5 per cent in November. Sawant said there was unemployment in Goa and his government was looking into the reasons for it.

"Goan youth either want government jobs or permanent jobs in the private sector. The percentage of Goan youth appearing in competitive exams like IAS, Railway Board is only three to four per cent," he said.

Sawant said his government was working towards ensuring that traditional businesses were left with people of the state and not taken over by non-Goans.

"In the upcoming Goa budget, we will give a special push to the promotion of traditional vocations in the state. We want that traditional businesses like agriculture, horticulture, and others should remain with Goans," he said.

The chief minister also said there is a need to change the mentality of people towards traditional businesses. "It may not happen overnight, it might take one or two years to have this change in mentality," Sawant said.

On the new educational policy, Sawant said education should be linked to employment opportunities. "There is no vertical mobility for many courses. What is the use of studying when there is no vertical mobility in those courses. They don't even figure in government's recruitment rules.

Some of these courses have to be stopped and we need to introduce skill-oriented courses," Sawant said. The skill development department has already started working on it, he added.