Plea filed against Union Minister Santosh Gangwar 'insulting' people of north India

A petition has been filed in a Bihar court against Union minister Santosh Gangwar for "insulting" the people of north India by saying that recruiters complain of lack of "quality people" in the region. Social activist Tamanna Hashmi filed the petition on Monday before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari in Muzaffarpur

In the petition, Hashmi has accused the minister of state for labour and employment of "insulting" the people of north India by the statement. The social activist has filed the petition under sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 195 (fabricating false evidence), 295 (insult the religion of any class) and 405 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code.

It is likely to be taken up for hearing on September 25. Gangwar, who made the controversial remark in Bareilly on Saturday his Lok Sabha constituency, later clarified he was only stressing on the lack of requisite skills among the youth. And to address it, the government has set up the Skill Development Ministry, he added.

Gangwar's statement seems to mirror the one by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who during one of his interviews to a print magazine and online daily, claimed that there is no lack of jobs in India, but there's a lack of data on jobs.

However, data shows that employment rate has been steadily falling since June 2016 quarter and has declined by 3 percentage points over the past three years, according to data shared by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

Unemployment ratio rose to a 33-month high in the month of June 2019 while employment rate fell to its lowest mark since January 2016, the Mumbai-based think tank said in its report. Every year around 5 million youths, including 1.5 million Engineers pass out from India, but only 40 per cent of them manage to get a job while the rest 64 per cent continue to struggle to build a career.