Chandigarh,  Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday expressed concern over rising unemployment and vacant posts in the state.

"While on one hand, Haryana is facing unemployment rate of 37.3 per cent, highest in the country, on the other 1.82 lakh posts are lying vacant in government departments," he said in a statement here.

The Leader of Opposition said the government abolished 13,000 posts without any recruitment.

"Whereas about 25 lakh unemployed youth are in search of jobs in the state. The BJP-JJP government is pushing the youth into unemployment. During the last eight years, instead of giving jobs the government has only been firing employees. Today every youth of Haryana is suffering because of the policies of the government," the Congress leader said.

"Today 38,612 posts are lying vacant in primary education alone, 25,534 in secondary education and 6,618 in higher education. There is a shortage of about 30,000 personnel in the police department and about 10,000 employees in the health department. Similarly, every department including irrigation, transport, skill development, animal husbandry, PWD, fire service and panchayat are running without adequate staff," he said.

"During the Congress tenure, more than one lakh jobs were given in the education department alone. In comparison, the present government is not able to recruit even as many employees as they retire every year," he added.