REACHING OUT: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (extreme left) meeting unemployed graduates in Lucknow on Friday. — PHOTO: PTI

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav handed the first unemployment allowance cheque for Rs. 1,000 to Aarti Devi from Jalalpur in Rae Bareli district, at a function here on Friday.

[The bearer cheque included the allowance for both April and May. In future, the money will be deposited in the beneficiaries' accounts.]

The unemployment allowance scheme promises to give Rs. 500 a month as dole to 7,66,352 registered unemployed graduates and post-graduates in the State.

Mr. Yadav distributed cheques to around 50,000 of the 52,570 educated unemployed from six districts of Lucknow Division. The break-up is as follows: Lucknow — 14,447, Unnao — 9,732, Hardoi — 5,447, Lakhimpur-Kheri — 6,444, Sitapur — 8,159 and Rae Bareli — 8,341.

He promised to increase the unemployment allowance to Rs. 1,000 a month if the Samajwadi Party and its ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal were voted to power. He said if his Government mopped up additional financial resources, the dole could be increased to a little more than Rs. 500.

Cautioning youth against forces "inimical" to his Government and the challenges before him, Mr. Yadav asked them to defeat the designs of the anti-farmer and anti-women forces.

He said unemployment, price rise and corruption were the outcome of the policies pursued by these forces.

He claimed that despite non-cooperation of the Central Government and the lack of finances, the Samajwadi Party-run Government had set a model for other States as well as to the Centre.

Assuring the youth of jobs, he said his next move would be to create awareness among the educated unemployed in neighbouring Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. His Government had generated employment opportunities for around four lakh people through the Bhumi Sena scheme, he said.

The unemployment allowance scheme is Uttar Pradesh's answer to the UPA's National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.

It is aimed at unemployed graduates and postgraduates in the age group 21-35. The maximum age limit is 35.

Labour Minister Waqar Ahmed Shah said that whereas the Central scheme assured Rs. 6,000 a year to the beneficiaries albeit on doing one year's labour, Mr. Mulayam Singh made it possible in one go in the State.

The Congress said the Chief Minister had launched an election allowance scheme.

Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh claimed that the ruling party had sponsored most beneficiaries under the scheme.

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