THE state and central governments have betrayed the youth and shattered their expectations, said M B Rajesh, all India president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India.

Addressing the 15th state conference of DYFI Tamil Nadu at Dindigul on January 3, he said that 43,000 government jobs were abolished across the country in the last three months. Over 11 lakh government posts have been lying vacant for the last one year, and IT-related jobs have been cut by five percent. The BJP-led government at the centre did not make any efforts to fill existing vacancies.

Jobs in rural areas too had come down sharply. The youth, from the professionally educated to the unskilled, were affected by the wrong policies of the central government, he charged.

The central government has been relinquishing its social responsibility in health care and education with an aim of downsizing the government and restricting it to act as a monitoring mechanism.

With signing of GATT Agreement, higher education would not be accessible even to middle class, he claimed.

Stating that the Right to Education Act was blatantly violated by the state and the central governments, Rajesh, who is also an MP from Palakkad, said that no private school implemented 25 percent reservation for economically and socially weaker sections in admission.

With no heroes to follow, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar has now taken up the principles of Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi to divert the attention of the people, he charged.

Earlier, a special seminar was held as part of the conference. Addressing the seminar, Carnatic vocalist T M Krishna said that humanism was the ultimate religion and socialism was essential to establish humanism in society.

Actress Rohini appealed to the youth to become civil servants to provide clean administration. Good governance alone would bring a change in society, she said.

Bala Prajapathi Adikalar, a spritual leader from Kanniyakumari who has always stood for secularism also addressed the seminar. He advocated that the thoughts of communism and secularism are the basic values of human life. 

The conference, in a resolution, had appealed to the state government to protect water bodies and natural resources and prevent illegal mining of sand and minerals.

Once, Tamil Nadu had 16,477 small tanks, 3,936 medium size tanks, 3,267 irrigation tanks and 9,886 private tanks. More than 50 percent of them have vanished now. Both the DMK and the AIADMK governments have been destroying water bodies, forests and farmlands. The state should protect at least the existing water bodies to avoid disasters in the future.

The conference had also urged the centre to grant statehood to Puducherry.

Puducherry would benefit from financial autonomy if it is granted statehood. At present, most of its revenue goes to the centre and Puducherry is dependant on the union government to implement all the welfare schemes. It has been crippled by financial crisis. Statehood would improve economy and offer concession to industrial development in Puducherry, a resolution said.

The DYFI has also appealed to the state government to implement the Right to Service Act.

On the final day, January 3, the conference elected an 81-member state committee, and the committee elected M Senthil as state president, S Bala, as state secretary and S Deepa, as state treasurer.

R Velmurugan, S Muthukannan, L Shanmuga Sundaram and other leaders who led the organisation from the past ten years were relieved in a spirited farewell.

At the concluding session, formers leaders of the organisation were felicitated. And the family members of the martyrs were also felicitated.

K Balabharathi, MLA and chairperson of the reception committee welcomed all and Balachandra Bose, DYFI Dindigul district secretary gave the vote of thanks.