New Delhi: Ahead of Delhi Assembly Election 2020, former prime minister and senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh on Tuesday addressed a public rally in Rajouri Garden area and addressed the issue of rising unemployment in the country.
“Today, I won’t condemn any party. I want to point out the issues plaguing the youths of Delhi… It is a matter of shame that despite being educated, our youths have to run around for jobs. We will take solid steps to deal with unemployment if we come to the office in Delhi,” Singh addressed an election meeting at Tilak Nagar.
Manmohan Singh pointed out that the unemployment rate in Delhi in the last four months was 15%, while it was 7% in the rest of the country.
“Congress is committed to the people and our focus will be on employment,” he said.
He pointed out that there had been a fall in the number of factory workers in the capital in 2017-18 compared with that in 2013-14 when the Sheila Dikshit government was in office.
“It was 75,273 in 2013-14 and fell to 68,630 in 2017-18,” Singh added.
Singh urged people to vote for the Congress candidates from Rajouri Garden and Tilak Nagar, Amandeep Singh Sudan and Raminder Singh Bamrah, respectively, who were also present at the meeting.
Singh said, “Sheila Dikshit is not with us today, For 15 years, she offered great service to Delhi and its people. She changed the design of the city with roads, flyovers and the metro. Delhi Metro started during her tenure. In the first ride from Connaught Place to Delhi University, she accompanied me and had said that she wanted to set up an extensive network connecting most areas of the city.”
Manmohan Singh said, “Problems related to the environment are increasing in Delhi. We will ensure that development is done while keeping a special focus on the environment.”
Pointing out that Congress had a separate manifesto for the environment and planned a Delhi Electric Vehicles initiative, he said, “Like Sheilaji who had transformed the bus fleet of the city from diesel to CNG, we will do everything possible to clean up Delhi’s air and water.”
