Unemployed, partially employed and even fully employed are waiting in the queues that seem to get longer by the day outside employment exchanges.
Almost everyone in the queue is hopeful of getting the `1,000 per month employment allowance promised by the Samajwadi Party government and registration has already crossed the 12-lakh mark in past three weeks alone.
Unnerved by the swelling numbers at employment exchanges, the Akhilesh Yadav government has now planning to set up norms for eligibility for unemployment allowance.
“The allowance will be payable to only those who have passed Class 10 and who remain unemployed after the age of 35. The allowance will be payable only up to the age of 45. Besides, we are also fixing a minimum income limit for households which will ensure that only those unemployed persons will get the allowance whose household income is below a certain limit. We will also ask for affidavits to ascertain if the applicant is doing some part time job or not,” said a senior official in the chief minister’s secretariat.
The state government is also planning to insert a clause that will make it mandatory for the beneficiaries to do work that may be assigned to them from time to time. “The people believe that the unemployment allowance is a kind of a pocket money from the government and we will not only dispel this belief but also sift out the genuine applicants. This is not a free-for-all offer but is designed to help out genuine people who fail to find a job,” the official said. According to official sources, nearly 74 per cent of those who have registered themselves at employment exchanges after the Samajwadi Party came to power are above the age of 35 years.
“This is because the age limit was not publicised earlier and anyone who does not have a job and has passed Class 10 believes that he will get the allowance. The issue could boomerang on the ruling party when actual implementation begins,” the official confessed. The unemployment allowance is estimated to cost `1,000 crores per year.
and as the numbers increase, the cost will also escalate.