Agartala, Mar 5 (IANS): The unemployment rate in Tripura stands at 1.4 per cent presently, which is a significant reduction from the 11 per cent recorded in 2018-19 when the CPI-M led Left Front was in power in the state, Social Welfare and Social Education Minister Tinku Roy said on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday.

The minister said this while replying to several queries put forth by Congress MLA Gopal Chandra Roy and CPI-M legislator Dipankar Sen.

Roy demanded to introduce an unemployment allowance for the registered unemployed youth of the state, which the minister rejected.

The minister said: “The unemployment rate in 2018-19 (11 per cent) was higher than the national average (8.7 per cent). The four subsequent annual unemployment reports suggest that the figures have come down than the national average, and they are going down further.

This proves that the scope of work has increased in the state, he said.

The also minister informed the House that in 2018-19, there were 7,41,305 registered unemployed people in Tripura, which came down to 3,00,029 as on January 31 this year.

Roy reasoned that government jobs can't be treated as the sole solution to unemployment, and those not employed in government service cannot be termed as unemployed.

He also said that the government is encouraging the entrepreneurs with a host of loan options and financial schemes.

Responding to a query from opposition leader Animesh Debbarma about the parameters on which the government decides the unemployment rate, the minister said they are determined by the Union Labour Ministry, and not the state government.

“The unemployment ratios were revealed by a survey conducted by the Union Labour Ministry,” he said.

The minister said that with collective efforts and through various government services, the issue of unemployment is being resolved in the state.

Roy also said that the unemployment rate is even lower in rural Tripura, i.e., 1.1 per cent vis-a-vis 3 per cent in the urban areas.

On the government employment front, the minister said that large-scale recruitment is continuing despite the government's focus on self-employment and entrepreneurship.

He said that as many as 1,980 persons have been recruited in different positions through the Joint Recruitment Board Tripura (JRBT), which also conducted interviews for 2,500 Group D staff, while 6,571 candidates were recruited through the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) since 2018.

Two Tripura State Rifles (India Reserve) battalions were created in which 1,413 youths got jobs, while 1,015 contractual doctors got jobs under the National Health Mission, the minister said.

Congress MLA Gopal Chandra Roy, meanwhile, contradicted the minister's statements, and claimed that Tripura's employment rate stands at 14.3 per cent, while CPI-M legislator Dipankar Sen cited CMIE reports to claim that the state has an unemployment rate of 16.3 per cent.