Karnataka rolls out last Congress guarantee amidst prep for Lok Sabha polls
Karnataka government rolled out the last of Congress’ pre-poll guarantees on Tuesday, with chief minister Siddaramaiah formally opening registrations for the unemployment assistance scheme Yuva Nidhi. The AICC, readying itself for the upcoming Parliament elections, is banking heavily on the guarantee formula, which has led to landslide victories for the Congress this year in both Karnataka and Telangana assembly polls.
Speaking at the Yuva Nidhi launch, the CM slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him out on his “lack of economic understanding” for criticising the guarantees.
“He had said that Karnataka will go bankrupt if the guarantees are implemented. The reality is that the state has grown financially strong now with the implementation of five guarantees,” he said.
For the Karnataka assembly polls in May, the Congress had structured its campaign around five “guarantees” or pre-poll promises, the last of which was Yuva Nidhi.
The scheme offers monetary assistance of Rs 3,000 to the graduates and Rs 1,500 to the diploma holders of the 2022-23 academic year, for a period of two years from the announcement of the results, or till they become employed or self-employed, whichever is earlier. The beneficiaries will begin to receive the funds directly into their account from January 12 – National Youth Day.
The state government had allocated Rs 52,800 crore towards fulfilling all the guarantees in its budget presented in July.
