Thousands of unemployed youths gather to collect their lunch at a district-level employment fair in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 2: Thousands of unemployed youths, who went for a mega job fair in Rourkela today, had to return angry and disappointed.

They were irked by the lack of management and absence of quality recruiters at the one-day job fair, which was being jointly organised by the district administration and State Employment Mission.

More than 70,000 applicants who swarmed the Air-strip Ground at Sector 13 in Rourkela with their resume complained that there were not enough jobs for all of them.

“Not a single reputed company has attended the recruitment programme. Coming here was a waste of time,” said Chinmay, an applicant. “Kiosks put up by small companies from neighbouring states have no positions except for security guards and they are seeking Class X passouts only. Where will the others go? The entire publicity was a nothing but a farce,” he said.

The job aspirants rued that there was no opportunity for those with professional degrees such as MBA and engineering. “We have been waiting here since morning and now they are offering us jobs for Rs 3,000. There are far better opportunities here in Rourkela. What will a girl do with a security guard’s job? It’s ridiculous. They have wasted our time,” said Subhalaxmi, another applicant.

Angered by the mismanagement, the enraged crowd went berserk, pulling down the stalls, fans and chairs.

Some of the applicants alleged that the police resorted to a lathicharge to control the situation. However, senior police officials said they did not resort to any kind of lathicharge.

Denying that it was a flop show, Sundargarh district collector Rupa Roshan Sahu said they had received over one lakh applications. “There were 40 companies at the job fair. Most of them were from outside the state. By noon, 2,000 candidates were already recruited. The crowd was far beyond our expectation,” she said.“The students will be contacted through the phone numbers they have provided and, if interested, they can join,” said the district collector. Opposition parties condemned the alleged lathicharge on students and described the job fair as a “gimmick in view of the upcoming panchayat polls”.

BJP state unit president and former local MP Jual Oram said: “The government should be ashamed about such an act. We condemn the lathicharge on poor unemployed youths in the name of providing jobs.”