http://india.nydailynews.com/business/2722e5eedd7af9b4d012826733ab2a90/spending-rs122-crore-to-dole-out-rs-854-crore
Spending Rs.12.2 crore to dole out Rs 8.54 crore!
Sunday Mar 10, 2013
Lucknow, March 10 — Has the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh
got its priorities wrong?
Even as the Samajwadi Party (SP) gears up to celebrate its first year
in office, a Right to Information (RTI) query on its flagship scheme -
an allowance for the unemployed - is set to trigger a controversy.
The scheme had created a wave of goodwill in the run-up to last year's
assembly polls and reaped rich electoral dividends to the SP which won
224 seats.
It has now been disclosed that money spent on extravagant functions to
distribute the dole is more than the money given to the programme's
beneficiaries.
In response to a RTI query by activist Urvashi Sharma, the training
and employment directorate has pointed to an expenditure of Rs 12.29
crore on holding functions at various places.
In contrast, the allowance disbursed by the government to the
unemployed youth added up to only Rs.8.54 crore till November 2012.
This means that the beneficiaries of the government's largesse got
some Rs.4 crore less than what was spent on functions, advertisements,
lunch packets, transport, marquees and the like.
Asked to respond to such lop-sided expenditure, a government official
admitted in private that the data was sure to "leave the state
government red-faced".
"This is utterly embarrassing. I hope the right people take note of
this and corrective measures are initiated," quipped the official.
The wastage on these functions becomes even more profound as these
were presided over by the chief minister.
The SP had promised unemployed youths a dole of Rs.1,000 a month.
While some political quarters had questioned the move and asked the
government to create job opportunities instead, the chief minister had
called it a flagship scheme.
The government, within three months of its swearing in, kickstarted
the scheme with fanfare at district headquarters.
Surprisingly, while the employment directorate says Rs.8.54 crore was
distributed between March 15 and Nov 14 in 2012, an official but yet
to be released speaks of Rs.192 crore distributed to 234,240
unemployed.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
IANS This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.
Original article © IANS / Daily News 2013
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