PC Mohanan dismissed the government's claim that the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on jobs data is a draft. Mohanan told Mint in an interview that the report is final and was approved by the National Statistical Commission.
The NSSO report, which was leaked by Business Standard, showed that India's unemployment rate stood at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent during 2017-18.
Mohanan, who had resigned as the acting chairman of the NSC in January, told the paper the episode has given an impression to the public that the government is trying to suppress uncomfortable data.
"The NITI Aayog (a government think tank) was the first to say that it’s a draft report. Once I approve it, how is it a draft report? ... When we approve a report, I am not going to give a figure which is not comparable with the other ones. Second, the concept of employment and unemployment are universally accepted," he told the paper.
The NSSO report was supposed to be released in December. It was cleared on December 4 and was discussed and approved on December 5, added Mohanan. " I’m told they have completed all those processes except putting it on the website. So, it is approved officially but not made available to the public."
He said he tried to ask the chief statistician, Praveen Srivastava, why the report was not available on the website but didn’t get a satisfactory reply.
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