Hubballi (PTI): Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday alleged that precarious financial conditions in Congress-ruled states like Karnataka have led to governments being unable to fill up job vacancies.

He, however, defended the measures taken by the BJP-led government at the Centre, to increase the employment rate in the country.

Responding to a question related to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reportedly targeting the BJP government at the Centre on the issue of unemployment, Joshi hit out at the former, accusing him of making statements based on what his advisers tell him, instead of himself going into details.

"Mr Rahul Gandhi doesn't always go into details. He will just give a reaction based on some feedback that his advisers give him. He doesn't go personally into details. Actually, post Covid, especially if I can say, employment rate has increased like anything, EPFO numbers itself show that," Joshi said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said as far as filling up vacancies in the central government are concerned, from 2022 to till date, every month there is Rozgar Mela, and every month 50,000 to one lakh people are being absorbed into the government.

"So far, in the last two-and-half years, more than seven-and-half lakh people have been recruited into various government departments and institutions," he added.

Noting that the ruling Congress in Karnataka has not filled more than 2 lakh vacancies in the state, the union minister said these vacancies have not been filled as the government is unable to pay the serving employees itself on time.

"They (Karnataka government) are not able to pay the serving employees on time. The payment of salary is delayed by ten to fifteen days to twenty days. Their (government) financial condition is precarious, so they are not filling up the vacancies," he claimed.

"Before talking about something else, I will ask Mr Rahul Gandhi to look at what is happening in Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh. They have governments in three states and they are in very bad shape," he added.

 

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Bilaspur (PTI): A special court in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district on Saturday granted bail to three persons, including two nuns from Kerala, arrested on charges of human trafficking and forced religious conversion, lawyers said.

Principal District and Sessions Judge (NIA court) Sirajuddin Qureshi had reserved the order on their bail pleas after a hearing on Friday.

The court has granted conditional bail to the trio, defence lawyer Amrito Das said.

Catholic nuns Preethi Merry and Vandana Francis, both from Kerala, along with Sukaman Mandavi, were arrested at the Durg railway station on July 25, following a complaint from a local Bajrang Dal functionary, who accused them of forcibly converting three girls from Narayanpur and trafficking them, a railway police official had said.

Following the bail hearing on Friday, Das had said that the prosecution had not asked for the trio's custody for interrogation, and the alleged victims had been sent back to their homes.