Jaipur: Correspondence between state employment department officials has exposed that the CM Yuva Sambal Yojana, which provides unemployment benefits to 2 lakh young people yearly, accepts and clears applications continuously on their website, which has led to increased financial obligations for the state.
According to regulations, applications should only be accepted annually between April 1 and June 30 on the portal. However, the dept is trying to ensure that the number of beneficiaries remains around two lakh at any given time. Due to untimely payments, a total of 13,348 complaints were made by beneficiaries from Jan 1, 2022, to date, only in Nagaur. An official confirmed that unemployment allowance payments in Nagaur have remained unpaid since Nov 2023.
"In Nagaur, payments for Aug to Oct 2023 and for SCs and STs up to Jan 2024 were made on July 8, 2024 amounting to Rs 21.3 crore. The bill for Nov and Dec 2023 has been prepared by this office, but payment is pending due to lack of budget. Payments for Jan and Feb 2024 will be made after data is pushed from the competent level, with an estimated amount of Rs 12 crore," the correspondence states.
"Thus, the total pending financial obligations for the financial year 2023-24 amounted to 42.4 crore. In this financial year, obligations exceeding those of the previous financial year 2022-23 also remained pending. In the current financial year 2024-25, the department has almost fully utilised the allocated amount in the interim budget, and even if the budget allocation is doubled, payments can only be made up to June 2024," it added. "Due to untimely payments, the image of the department and the state govt is tarnished."
The unemployment allowance is Rs 4,000 for male and Rs 4,500 for female, transgender, and specially-abled persons.