YSRCP supporters stage protests over unemployment allowance

AMRAVATI: Scores of YSRCP supporters protested against the TDP-led NDA government over its alleged failure to fulfill the poll promise of paying Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance per month to unemployed youth in the state on Monday. Hundreds of YSRCP leaders, supporters, and cadres demonstrated under the banner of ‘Yuvatha Poru’ (youth struggle) in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, YSR Kadapa district, Anantapur, Rajahmundry, Ongole, Kurnool, and other places.

"The government owes Rs 36,000 to each one of them (unemployed youth) as it did not give the unemployment allowance (for one year)," YSRCP MLC Varudu Kalyani claimed, speaking to a vernacular news channel. In the run-up to the 2024 polls, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had promised that he would provide a Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance per month to jobless youth. However, Kalyani alleged that even after one year in power, the NDA alliance government has not lived up to this poll promise.

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No jobs, unemployment allowance

"In their election manifesto, they said 20 lakh jobs or Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance, but even after one year, they have neither filled a single job nor given the Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance," Kalyani claimed. Observing that there are 1.53 crore unemployed youth in the state, the opposition leader reminded that IT Minister Nara Lokesh had promised during his ‘Yuva Galam’ padayatra (political walkathon) that a job calendar would be notified every January 1, but pointed out that it is already June without a trace of it. She claimed that ‘calendar years are changing’, but the NDA alliance government is not offering jobs, ridiculing that three people—Naidu, Pawan Kalyan, and Lokesh—got jobs in the state after the new government assumed office. She mocked that Naidu got the

Chief Minister’s job, Kalyan became Deputy Chief Minister, and Lokesh a minister, even as "more than three lakh existing jobs were removed". Further, she claimed that 12 lakh youth have migrated out of the state in search of livelihood. Terming ‘Yuvatha Poru’ a success, Kalyani said youth participated in large numbers in Visakhapatnam district and accused the coalition government of "first cheating youth and students".

As part of this protest, YSRCP leaders submitted memoranda to district collectors. In Palnadu district, cops dispersed the protesters at the collectorate as more YSRCP activists attempted to submit the memorandum to the collector than the permitted number, a police official told PTI. Meanwhile, there was no immediate reaction from the TDP.