Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesman Muzaffar Parray said the job drive was a part of the party’s manifesto. “We had promised to provide government jobs to the unemployed youth, and it is now finally taking shape,” he said.

At present, the state has 4.10 lakh employees, which include around 60,000 working for various public sector undertakings. The total salary bill adds up to a whopping Rs 5,700 crore, which accounts for 30 per cent of the annual budget. Sources in the Finance Ministry said the new recruitments would put an additional Rs 800 crore burden on the state exchequer.

So far, the employment policy of the state government has been extremely short-sighted. Earlier, the government recruited 33,000 Rehbar-e-Taleem or teaching assistants, who are paid a paltry Rs 1,500 per month with a promise that they will be regularised as teachers after five years. Then there are 7,000 education volunteers who also work as teachers and get Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per month. The government has also recruited 3,000 Rehber-e-Zirat (assistants in agriculture department) who get Rs 1,500 per month.

However, Mehbooba blamed the practice of contractual employment on the previous government. “Our government was unable to recruit anyone on a permanent basis. Farooq Abdullah had signed an MoU with the then NDA government on job freeze. We had no option but to recruit them on contract,” she said. “That has been withdrawn now,” she added.