Chandigarh, Feb 7 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday held a protest in Haryana's Karnal district over unemployment, accusing the Manohar Lal Khattar government of failing to provide jobs to young people in the state.

The protesters had planned to 'gherao' Chief Minister Khattar's residence in Karnal but were stopped by police, who deployed personnel in large numbers and erected barricades. AAP workers tried to force their way through the barricades but failed, following which some squatted on the road.

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Later, police detained the senior leaders of the party's Haryana unit and some other protesters as well.

Earlier, addressing a gathering, the president of AAP in Haryana Sushil Gupta slammed the BJP-JJP coalition for not ensuring employment to the state's youths.

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Gupta said despite two lakh posts lying vacant in various government departments, the Khattar dispensation was not filling them.

"Haryana has the highest unemployment in the country," Gupta claimed.

He said youngsters were becoming victims of depression and drugs. "Educated youths of the state are forced to work as labourers," the AAP leader added.

Gupta also alleged that the Khattar government was sending the state's youths to Israel to work as labourers as it has failed to provide employment opportunities to them.

Haryana AAP's senior vice president Anurag Dhanda also slammed the state government and said the chief minister had promised to provide 50,000 jobs in 2023. But the government did not give even 1,000 jobs last year, he claimed.

Dhanda said the state government did nothing to give jobs to the youths in the last nine years.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)