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DEREK ALMEIDA 22nd Sep 2021

KEJRIWALJI, GOA IS NOT DELHI

The recent announcement by AAP of a dole for the unemployed, jobs for all and 80 % reservation of jobs in the private sector is like old wine in an old bottle. Nothing is new.

So how is AAP going to go from zero seats to at least 5 seats, for start?

Truth be said, Kejriwal has not been able to fire the imagination of Goans. Even the promise of total transparency in allotment of govt jobs is not convincing because everyone makes the same promise.

Unemployment dole is a failure in the West but the can’t roll it back because it would be democratic suicide. That is why the UK need migrants to do jobs it’s citizens don’t want to do.

Instead, what AAP should promise is ‘salary inflation correction handout’. You can call it whatever you want. Under this scheme, you get a benefit of Rs 3,000 or 5,000 if your salary is less than, say, Rs 20000. An employee can claim this only if he is employed. So instead of giving an incentive to stay at home, you give an incentive to work, which is a positive approach. And you upgrade the salary to make the job worthwhile. This should be given directly to employees.

The 80 % reservation of jobs in the private sector might work only if the inflation correction handout is implemented. The idea is to make local jobs lucrative for locals. Otherwise this is a dead promise.

Thirdly, this promise of transparency in govt jobs means nothing. And no one believes transparency is possible because there are ways to get around it. Instead distribute job quotas to each constituency. For instance if 80 posts are to be filled then each constituency should get 2. If a constituency get extra then it should be over looked during the next round.

Lastly, if AAP is really serious about corruption then it should scrap the Town and Country Planning Dept and the PDAs and hand over these duties to panchayats. The reason is, Goa is in a post-development phase and when this happens things work better when powers are handed to local authorities. Scandinavian nations do this very well.

Otherwise AAP is just another contender to the throne and it will not get very far.