In wake of the upcoming State Assembly polls, Gujarat Congress promised unemployed youngsters to give unemployment allowance if the grand old party would come into power.
The Congress party is out of power in Gujarat since 1995. The Congress leadership in the State are hopeful to come back in power after the 2017 Assembly polls amid ongoing pro-quota Patidar stir and post Dalit youth flogging incident agitations of lower caste communities.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Bharatsinh Solanki said that the Congress party would give allowance of `3,000 per month to unemployed youth who passed class 12th but couldn’t obtained graduation degree. In the case of graduate and post-graduate unemployed youth the congress party would give `3500 and `4000 respectively till they get regular employment, said Solanki.
The announcement of Gujarat Congress is a move to attract young voters towards the party.
As per the Congress leaders there are nearly 50 lakh educated unemployed youth in the State and monthly cost to the State Government would be nearly 150 crore. Solanki claimed that the amount of unemployment allowance would be negligible considering the annual State budget which is around `1,33,000 crores.
“Current BJP Government is incurring useless expenditure for events likes Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit which only benefits rich industrialists. Besides, they are spending extravagantly on fairs and festivals. Instead of wasting money in such events unemployment allowance should be given to educated unemployed youth,” opined the GPCC chief.
In fact even before winning the State Assembly polls slated in December 2017, the Congress party has announced to float a website for unemployed youth wishing to register themselves for the unemployment benefits. According to Solanki once the party would come into power, they would be given allowance as per their eligibility. The Congress party has also made arrangement for physical forms for those who are not tech savvy.
leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly and former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela said that the promise given to the youth of Gujarat was not hollow as the Congress party was committed to fulfil its promises. Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said that in the process of registration of unemployed youth, his party would come to know exact situation of unemployment in Gujarat.
It is worth mentioning that ahead of the last Assembly polls in 2012, Congress party had made promise to give houses to homeless at a cheaper prices and opened registration process too which got overwhelming response. Despite the fact, the party couldn’t win the elections against ruling BJP headed by then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.