Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prabhari Prakash Javadekar has accused the successive governments of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) over the past seven decades of not creating job opportunities citing the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the statistics office that put Kerala’s unemployment rate at 30%.

Addressing the media here on Tuesday, he said that 47% of females and 19% of males in the State were unemployed. The survey highlights a stark contrast between Kerala’s unemployment rates and those of other States such as Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat where the total unemployment rate is just 2.6% and 3.1% respectively, Mr. Javadekar said and demanded that the government come clean on the survey findings.

“The disparity underscores the difference between effective governance models, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s good governance model and the bad governance of the LDF, UDF, and the INDIA alliance. The LDF-UDF alliance did politics over issues like Palestine, Intifada, and appeasement of extremism instead of focusing on employment generation and development,” he said.

He alleged that despite the Kerala government’s claims of ease of doing business, the State’s anti-development policies, lack of infrastructure, cumbersome procedures, corruption, union pressures, and unfriendly government approach had driven businesses to other States.

“The State’s educational institutions have also suffered due to politicisation and criminal activities. As a result, the aspirational, intelligent, hard-working and deserving youths remain frustrated and are compelled to go to other States and countries for education and jobs,” Mr. Javadekar said.