Agartala, Dec. 30: Tripura has been reeling under severe unemployment problem.

According to the figures registered with the employment exchanges across the state, more than seven lakh people are unemployed. In the absence of a viable private sector, the state government continues to be the major employer in Tripura. But the shrinking scope for employment in government services and the Left Front government's alleged indifference to the problem has created a situation.

Veteran Congress MLA and former leader of the Opposition Ratan Lal Nath has accused the state government of suppressing the actual vacancy figures in government services and wilfully refusing to fill up vacancies.

"Replying to a query, chief minister Manik Sarkar had informed the House on March 28 that there were 12,558 vacant posts in the government. At the same time, the department of tribal welfare informed the House that 21,063 posts for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were lying vacant in government departments. In my opinion, the chief minister deliberately misled the House," Nath said.

He said according to information gathered by him through RTI, there were more than 50,000 vacant posts in various departments and the state government was deliberately desisting from recruiting employees to such posts.

"They will make some recruitments next year in view of the Assembly elections but most of the posts will remain vacant and some of them may even be abolished," Nath said, adding that there has been no recruitment to 44 of the 61 departments over the past two years while only 1,368 people have been recruited to 17 departments.

Nath charged the Left Front government with keeping people deliberately in a state of poverty and backwardness so that they could be used with small baits for political purposes. "If people become self-reliant and economically strong, who will swell the ranks in their processions and meetings? This is the reason why they neither recruit people nor give legitimate dues of the state's employees and pensioners," Nath said.

He took strong exception to the employment given to youths on fixed pay. "Even the Supreme Court has ruled that there should be equal pay for equal work. In gross violation of this, the Left Front government has been recruiting people, including doctors and engineers, with fixed pay for five years to officially sanctioned posts. This is illegal," Nath said. All these issues will be raised in the political programmes of the Opposition, he added.