Congress may have made a slew of promises to woo young voters in Uttarakhand, including an allowance to unemployed youths, to shore up its chances but the number of those without work has nearly doubled in the stateduring the past five years of its rule.
According to latest official data, the number of unemployed by 2015-16 has reached 9.38 lakh from 5.65 lakh five years ago.
A remarkable 2.3 lakh unemployed registered themselves over a period of just one year in 2015-16.
A look at the data shows that on an average there has been an increase of around one lakh unemployed youths in the state every year.
Though it is not clear how many of them got jobs, during 2015-16, a total of 349 youths got employment through employment exchanges.
As in past elections, this time too Congress has made a number of promises to the youth in its poll manifesto which include distribution of an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 to themwithin 100 days of coming to power.
In 2012 assembly elections also the Congress had promised to give an unemployment allowance as per their educational qualification from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 to youths registered as unemployed for three years in a row at the state's employment exchanges.
However, the amount was reduced immediately after the party came to power and the facility was completely withdrawn after Harish Rawat took over the reins of power.
(REOPENS DES 11)
Though at that time Chief Minister Harish Rawat had explained the withdrawal of allowance by saying the youth were being given self-employment instead,he did not clarify how many got the same.
When contacted, the CM'sspokesman Surendra Kumar said the state government alone could not be held responsible for growing unemployment rate in Uttarakhand as the Centre's policies also influence it.
Alleging that the Narendra Modi government had also promised to give employment to two crore youths every year, he asked what happenedto that commitment.
However, admitting that unemployment was a serious problem, he said the state government had taken several new steps to deal with it and giving unemployment allowance to them reflected the party's thinking in that direction.
