Lucknow, June 16 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's much publicised decision to offer a dole of Rs.500 a month finally sees light of day Friday with 52,571 unemployed youth getting their first cheque at a mega event here.
The first batch comprises 34,084 men and 18,487 women from six districts - Sitapur, Unnao, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Hardoi, Rae Bareli and Lucknow.
Of these, the chief minister will hand over cheques to 300 select youths. The rest will be given out by a large team of 54 ministers and 62 senior officials specially detailed for the job.
The venue for the event, Ambedkar Maidan, has been covered with a 600,000-sq ft tent to accommodate 60,000 chairs. Separate counters for different towns have been set up with each being supervised by principal secretary ranked official.
"This is an unprecedented and historic event. No government has ever undertaken such an exercise," said District Magistrate Ramendra Tripathi, the chief organiser.
The state government has allocated a budget of Rs.4 billion in the current financial year for the dole, an official spokesperson said.
Though 880,000 people were registered with different employment exchanges spread across the country's most populous state until the cut off date of Feb 28, 2006, only about half had applied for the unemployment allowance, he said.