Reality bites Samajwadi Party's allowance promise

Poor financial health of the state has forced the Akhilesh Yadav government to backtrack on its promise to give unemployment allowance to all jobless people above 35.

The state cabinet on Friday , laid down the criteria for giving the unemployment allowance, which would make lakhs of unemployed people ineligible to claim the allowance.

According to the official sources, the allowance would be given only to the unemployed who are between 30 and 50 years old. They must have passed class 10 and must have got themselves registered on or before March 15, the day Akhilesh Yadav was sworn in as chief minister.

According to the new rules,  unemployed youths from families with an annual income of Rs 36,000 or less only would qualify for the dole.

The income of both father and mother would be added to arrive at the figure. Besides, the beneficiary must have been living in the state since birth.

An estimated 9.5 lakh unemployed youths were likely to be benefit from the scheme which would entail an expenditure of Rs 1,100 crore, sources said.

The new regulations governing the unemployment allowance are likely to come as a dampener to a large number of youths, who had registered themselves with employment exchanges in the hope of getting the allowance.

Promise

Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had declared that it will give allowance of Rs 1,000 per month to every unemployed person above the age of 35 if it formed the government after the Assembly polls.

The announcement triggered a heavy rush at the exchanges and even those who were 70 and 80 also got themselves registered.

“Poor financial health of the state has tied the government’s hands. We cannot afford unemployment allowance for all,” admitted a senior SP leader.