Cong grills govt ‘for not paying’ unemployment allowance

Wednesday, 23/03/2016

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CHANDIGARH: The opposition Congress on Tuesday grilled the SAD-BJP government for the “non-payment of the mandatory unemployment allowance”, as employment generation minister Ajit Singh Kohar acknowledged in the Vidhan Sabha that such an allowance could be disbursed to only 619 employees in the past two years.

“Lakhs of unemployed youth are languishing in the state, and it should be an embarrassing situation for the minister to give such a reply in the House,” Abohar MLA Sunil Jakhar said during Question Hour. 

Jakh ar also waved the Shiromani Akali Dal manifesto for the 2012 assembly elections, highlighting the ruling party’s promise of ` 1,000 monthly unemployment allowance to the educated jobless youth. 

He said the state had failed to give even the stipulated Rs 200 monthly allowance to graduate and postgraduate applicants. “Will the minister assure us that the unemployed youth will be given the paltry ` 200 allowance?” he asked. 

The minister, in his reply, said ` 6.52 lakh was disbursed to 444 unemployed youth in 2014-15; similarly, ` 1.93 lakh was disbursed to 175 beneficiaries the next year. Congress members walked out of the House when the minister did not reply to their supplementary query as to how many unemployed youth were registered with the employment generation department and the number of youth eligible for the allowance. 

` 25 CRORE FOR EVERY CONSTITUENCY?

On the government’s proposal to spend Rs 25 crore each in all 117 assembly segments in the remaining period of the incumbent government, rural development and panchayats minister Sikandar Singh Maluka clarified that development works would not be selected on the basis of the recommendations of the MLAs concerned. 

“Punjab Infrastr ucture Development Board has constituted district-level committees under deputy commissioners and any proposal would be sent to these committees,” the minister said. The funds for the Mukh Mantri Pendu Vikas Yojana were being provided by the PIDB. 

` 4,337 CR FOR SCs REMAINED UNSPENT

A sum of ` 4,337 crore meant for scheduled castes under the state’s sub-plan remained unspent in the past two years, welfare of SCs/BCs minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said in a written reply. The minister said ` 2,112 crore of the total subplan of ` 6,432 crore remained unspent in 2014-15, while ` 2,225 crore of ` 6,764 crore remained unutilised in 2015-16. The total expenditure remained 67% of the total sub-plan outlay.