Just 444 educated youth get unemployment allowance

Arun Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ropar, February 7

Even as the state government claims that there are a total of 3.66 lakh educated unemployed youth, a mere 444 were granted unemployment allowance last year and that too a maximum of Rs 250 per month.

The SAD-BJP alliance had promised Rs 1,000 unemployed allowance to educated youth four years ago in 2012 during the Assembly elections.

The opposition Congress, however, has claimed that the number of unemployed in the state is as high as 75 lakh.

Information procured by AAP in-charge of RTI team Dinesh Chadha has revealed that the number of beneficiaries of unemployment allowance in Punjab has dwindled gradually in the past 12 years.

While 10,192 unemployed educated residents of the state were disbursed more than Rs 1.21 crore as unemployed allowance in 2002-03, the number of such people dipped to 309 in 2013, who were disbursed Rs 3.46 lakh only.

In 2003-04 the number of educated youth receiving allowance was reduced to nearly half of the previous year and 5,994 people were disbursed Rs 67.21 lakh. In 2004-05, Rs 64.52 lakh were disbursed to 5,454 unemployed. In 2005-06 the number of such people surged to 6,041. Since then the number of beneficiaries decreased substantially.

Under the Punjab Payment of Unemployment Allowance to Educated Unemployed Persons Rules, 1978, Rs 150 is provided as monthly allowance to a matric unemployed who is registered for over three years and Rs 200 to post-matric unemployed.

For orthopaedically handicapped, this amount has been fixed as Rs 225 and Rs 300, respectively. For blind and deaf and dumb the amount of allowance is Rs 450 and Rs 600, respectively.

Chadha alleged that sharp decrease in the number of beneficiaries indicated that the successive state governments of the Congress as well as the SAD-BJP alliance not only failed in providing employment, but they also avoided to provide relief in the form of unemployment allowance to the educated youth.