Out of the 1.25 lakh students from 514 colleges — government, grant-in-aid, technical and non-technical — who will graduate in June this year, only 60,000 have registered for the jobs with the state Education Department. The department was expecting at least 1 lakh registrations.
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Ahmedabad: Eyeing young voters before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP government in Gujarat boasted of organising the ‘first-ever’ 15-day mega-placement camp across the state. With 70,000 private jobs on offer, less than 50 per cent of the final year students registered for it, taking the government by surprise.
Reportedly 23 placements camps for over 60,000 students in the final-year of various graduate, post-graduate and professional courses at government and grant-in-aid colleges and universities across the state was organised.
“Out of the 1.25 lakh students from 514 colleges — government, grant-in-aid, technical and non-technical — who will graduate in June this year, only 60,000 have registered for the jobs with the state Education Department. The department was expecting at least 1 lakh registrations,” the Indian Express reported.
The ministry responded by commenting on the “Gujju mentality” of students. Energy Minister Saurabh Patel, while addressing students during the inauguration of Ahmedabad’s third phase of mega-placement camp, stressed on the “Gujju mindset” towards jobs, and the need to change it, the report said.
“Unfortunately Gujju brothers do not want to leave their houses. Go to any central office or any bank, look at the managerial posts, you will not find a single Gujju manager. Why? Because it is a transferable job where you have to go out of the state on promotion and move out. Out of 50 Gujaratis, 45 would be clerks, and you will see the one boss who is heading 5 clerks is from outside Gujarat. We need to change this mindset, both for men and women. Gujaratis say we want to do a job in Ahmedabad only, and in Ahmedabad in Ellisbridge area only. Such a mindset will not work,” the minister said
The Education Department is set to conduct a survey to ascertain why the students did not apply for jobs through the placement camps.
“The department will conduct feedback and survey from students and faculty members on reasons why all students did not enrol for the placement camps. Though reasons like students’ preference for higher studies or setting up their own ventures or joining their family business have been cited, the numbers are surprising,” Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary (Education), said in the report.
Also blaming the “entrepreneurial spirit” among Gujaratis for the less preference of private jobs, Patel in the report said, “When the Tata Nano plant started functioning, the Tata MD came to me and said, “Sir you say give jobs to Sanand people, give jobs to them. We do not have any objection in giving them jobs but after six months they come up and say you are running the canteen in this manner. You give me a lesser amount and I will run it more efficiently. So, they leave jobs and run away”. So, this is an impression of Gujaratis that they do not stay for long in one job and they invent their own solution in the form of business. This will change in the coming years, I am absolutely sure about this. If you want to work then steadiness is very important.”
Handing over the letters of intent to some of the students who were interviewed by private firms and offered jobs, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said, “The slogan of BJP is Ayodhya mein Ram, Yuvano ko kaam, Mehngayi pe lagaam, Kisaano ko sahi dam aur hata do brashtachari badnam (Ram in Ayodhya, jobs for youths, controlling inflation, right price for farmers and removal of corruption).”