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Uttar Pradesh assembly witnessed noisy scenes and heated exchanges between the ruling BJP and the opposition parties over the issue of unemployment and forcing the Speaker HN Dikshit to adjourn the House for half an hour.
The government claimed that it had provided employment to several lakh youth during its four-year tenure while the opposition parties accused the government of taking the unemployed youth for a ride and cheating them.
Raising the issue through adjournment notice, leader of opposition and senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Govind Chaudhary said the joblessness had reached alarming proportions. He said the demonetization of high value currency notes in November 2016 followed by the implementation of Goods and Services Tax in July 2017 had dealt a severe blow to the economy. He said the unplanned nation-wide lockdown due to the pandemic imposed in March last year was a huge blow to the unorganised sector of the economy.
The SP leader said even as the three blows to the economy caused the closure of a large number of small and medium business establishments, the failure of the BJP-led UP government to honour its election promise during 2017 assembly elections for filling all the vacancies in government departments, had further aggravated the crisis for the jobless youth within 90 days of coming to power.  He said as many as five lakh posts were lying vacant in various government departments.  
He said the government's claim of providing employment during the last four years was far from the truth. He alleged that to stall the recruitment in government departments, the state government was using various tricks like postponing written examinations for recruitment.
 Congress member Ajay Kumar Lallu said unemployment was the biggest crises before the youth of the state and many were forced to commit suicide. He said despite the large number of vacancies in government departments, recruitments were not being done.
Rebutting the charges of the opposition, Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya said the state government had adopted a very transparent recruitment process. Taking a jibe at the opposition, he said, "We do not sell jobs, we make actual recruitment."
Targeting the previous Samajwadi Party government, the minister said, "During the SP government's tenure, Subordinate Service Commission, UP State Public Service Commission and other recruitment bodies were known for rampant corruption and irregularities."
He said the BJP government was making recruitment in government departments in a transparent manner.
Giving details of the recruitment made by the government, Maurya said during the last four years over three lakh persons had been recruited. He also rebutted the contention of the opposition that the number of the registered unemployed persons had increased during the last four years.
Irked by the claims of the labour minister, the opposition members were on their feet and started raising anti-government slogans.
Speaker HN Dikshit tried to pacify the irate opposition members. The opposition members, however, refused to be persuaded, forcing the speaker to adjourn the House for 15 minutes and later extend it by another 15 minutes.