Unemployed graduates in Rajasthan will soon receive a monthly allowance of Rs 3,500 under the 'Mukhyamantri Yuva Sambal Yojana'. The state labour department notified the scheme through an order provisioning that youth will get allowances for the month of February on March 1.CM Ashok Gehlot, while addressing a gathering of Rajasthan University students in Jaipur recently, said unemployed women will get upto Rs 3,500, while unemployed men will get upto Rs 3,000. These figures currently stand at Rs 750 and Rs 650 respectively.

The labour department has also started working on the rules guiding the scheme's implementation, which includes setting up of the eligibility criteria. Sources said applicants from families that have an annual income of Rs 2 lakh per annum will benefit from the scheme. This amounts to a monthly family income of upto Rs 16,666. The department is also considering a rule that says only two members per family can avail of the scheme.To avail of the allowances, beneficiaries need to file an affidavit before the authorities, saying they aren't enrolled with a private employer, and if their credentials are found to be untrue, action may be taken against them.

The department has also proposed an age bar of 30 years for youth from the general category and 35 for ST/SC categories. The scheme will be launched for two years initially, and would burden the exchequer by Rs 526 crore.With this, the Congress government claims, it has fulfilled its poll promise, although the number of beneficiaries will be fewer than mentioned earlier. There are about 1 lakh graduates who stand to benefit from the scheme. There are 8,57,316 job seekers from Rajasthan registered with the National Career Services (NCS) as of March 31, 2018.

On the other hand, however, figures may escalate four times over if the Congress takes data quoted by its leaders into consideration. Referring to the CAG report of 2018, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said there were 33 lakh unemployed persons in the state. Congress, in its manifesto, had made two populist announcements: Farm loan waivers, and allowances to unemployed youths. But the two promises will cost the state exchequer big. The loan waiver is expected to result in an additional Rs 18,000 crore burden, which will be in addition to the Rs 6,000 crore burden carried in from the previous waiver scheme of the Vasundhara Raje government.