Chandigarh, Jan 16 (IANS): Former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said the state ruling BJP has pushed the youth on the path of unemployment, crime and drugs.

Hooda said 5,700 youth have applied for 13 posts of peon and chowkidar in a court in Sirsa.

“It’s surprising that for this recruitment which requires Class VIII pass out, applicants with degrees of BA, B. Tech, B. Com, B. Pharmacy, BCA, MA, MBA, MSc, MCom, MCA and MPhil have applied. This makes it clear how terrible unemployment has become in Haryana,” he said.

The two-time Chief Minister said the Congress had made the state a job provider but the BJP has made it the number one state in unemployment.

“Due to unemployment, graduate, postgraduate, MPhil and even PhD qualified youth are ready to do menial jobs like sweeper, peon and watchman in private companies, court and Kaushal Rojgar Nigam. A total of 39,990 graduates and 6,112 postgraduate youth applied for the post of sweeper in Kaushal Nigam. In total, 3.95 lakh youth stood in queue for the posts of sweeper,” he said.

Earlier, the same situation was seen in the recruitment of six posts of peon in a Panipat court, but 10,000 youth applied, which included BA, MA, MPhil, PhD, B Tech and M Tech pass-out youth.

A total of 18 lakh unemployed youth had applied for 18.000 Group-D vacancies announced by Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and 25 lakh had applied for 6,000 clerk posts.

“From CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) to government body NSSO, the figures themselves confirm that Haryana is number one in unemployment,” Hooda said.

The Congress leader said today that the youth of Haryana are either leaving the state or leaving the country in search of livelihood.

“During the Congress government, coaching centres used to open in every street and locality for job preparation, but today immigration offices are opening in every street,” he added.