Over 5 lakh jobs lost, admits Govt

Government on Friday admitted that the estimate of 500,000 job losses following the economic meltdown does not project the full magnitude of the problem in the country, but said it was addressing the situation with all seriousness.
"I agree that it is only a sample survey by the Labour Bureau. It is not the report of the entire country. It does not reflect the total job loss in the country," labour minister Oscar Fernandes said responding to a calling attention motion on the issue in the Lok Sabha.
The sample study in certain sectors indicates that five lakh workers have lost their jobs during October-December 2008, he said.
The motion was given by Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), Rupchand Pal and Santashri Chatterjee (both CPI-M) who were sharply critical of the government's "insensitive" attitude to large scale retrenchment and wage cuts and spoke of job losses to the tune of 20 lakhs (Rs 2 million) in the country.
Fernandes said a meeting of the state labour ministers was discussing the issue and his ministry has set up a crisis group to monitor the situation.
The government was also providing unemployment allowance equivalent to six months salary in 12 instalments to workers in the organised sector.
Dissatisfied over the minister's reply, the Left members staged a walkout.