The opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Tripura has accused the BJP-led state government in the state of raising false claims of providing government jobs and offering employment opportunities to the youths to mislead the people ahead of assembly elections.

Senior CPI(M) leader and former finance minister Bhanu Lal Saha on Sunday told media persons that during the last five years of the Left Front government more jobs were created than the current BJP-IPFT coalition government as per the budget document placed in the assembly this year.

Saha was reacting to the recent statement of the state education minister Ratan Lal Nath that the earlier CPI(M) and Congress governments, during their respective tenures, had “cheated the youths of the state by not creating enough employment opportunities”.

Saha said, “Nath had also challenged that he would resign if his statement is wrong. I just wanted to remind him of the budget document of the state government, which shows the left front had given 27,378 new jobs in its last four years terms and the BJP till last financial year provided only 12,018 people.”

Saha claimed from 2013 to 2017 during the Left Front government, the number of regular teachers and employees on January 1, 2013, was 1.5 lakh and on January 1, 2017, it increased to 1.16 lakh, and 16, 332 people were retired during the period, which had been filled up immediately.

According to the data from the BJP-IPFT coalition government, the number of teachers and employees on January 1, 2018, was over 1.13 lakh which was decreased to 1.4 and none of the vacant posts fell vacant after the retirement of 21,187 employees during the period.

The data proves that 56 per cent fewer jobs were created during the BJP regime than during the last five years of the Left Front government.