Mudra job data not to be made public before Lok Sabha polls: Report

The data report from Mudra, which stands for Micro-Units Development and Refinance Agency, will be the third such report on employment figures which will be kept under wraps before elections.

Earlier it was reported that after dismissing National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report on unemployment, the NDA government had planned to use the findings of the Labour Bureau’s survey.

However, at a meeting on March 8, the Expert Committee asked the bureau to “reconcile some errors” in the report for which the bureau sought two more months, sources have told the newspaper. The committee’s deliberations are yet to be approved by the Union Labour Minister.

The NDA government hasn’t officially made public the NSSO report on jobs, which pegged unemployment at a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18.

Similarly, the Labour Bureau’s 6th annual jobs survey had projected unemployment to be at a four-year-high of 3.9 percent in 2016-17. Both the aforementioned reports were not officially made public by the NDA government.

Last month, the Niti Aayog had asked the Labour Bureau to process the survey and present its findings on February 27 so that it could be shared ahead of the announcement of general elections, and before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force.

The move comes at a time when the Opposition is slamming the Narendra Modi-led NDA government for not creating enough jobs in the last five years and fabricating the data.