Hitting out at the Samajwadi party-led Uttar Pradesh government, BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Saturday said that rising unemployment has forced graduates and PhD holders to apply for the posts of sweepers and peons in the state.

Pointing to the Amroha Municipal Corporation advertisement inviting applications for the post of 'Safai Karmachari' (sweeper), Gandhi claimed majority of the 19,000 applicants were graduates and post-graduates. He said that even PhD holders applied for the post of peon at the secretariat.

"The rising unemployment has forced people with higher qualifications to apply for such a low-ranked post as there is no job opportunity in the state," Gandhi said at a private management institute.

He alleged that bureaucratic red-tapism and rising crime rate are posing as hurdles to setting up of industries in the state. He said that the UP government has "failed" to attract domestic as well as foreign investors, in comparison to other states.

Gandhi appealed for improving the standard of education in government schools and sought for creating a competitive environment among private and state-run institutes. The Sultanpur MP said that it would be wrong to bring privatisation in every sector.

Alleging that a paltry 3 per cent of GDP is being spent on education and 2 per cent on health, the BJP leader hoped that in the coming years, such figures would improve.

"To improve the scenario, GDP figure in coming years should rise to at least 10 per cent in education and 8 per cent in health," he said.

Gandhi also claimed that nearly 3 crore people get poor due to "medical-debt" every year.

"This is due to the burdensome medical expenses incurred by farmers and middle class salaried persons to treat their family members," he said.

Claiming that he joined politics to help the downtrodden, Gandhi announced plans to distribute his salary as an MP among farmers and the poor of the state. Gandhi added that it was sad that farmers were committing suicide and many of them migrating for jobs to adjoining cities and other parts of the country, instead of continuing with farming.