Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu had promised stipend for the unemployed youth in the 2014 elections, among other promises. Though he had made several changes to his promises, including loan waiver to the farmers, the stipend promised for the unemployed youth remained unfulfilled promise for the past four and a half years.

On Thursday night, at the Cabinet meeting he took up the issue finally and gave his consent to roll out the scheme in the next couple of months. A decision would come after the next meeting of the cabinet. In the meanwhile, he had asked the officials to do the frame-work to register the unemployed youth to receive the benefit.

The Cabinet meeting had decided to give the benefit to the youth in the age group of 22 to 35 years hailing from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families with the white ration cards. It is not just enough, the youth should have studied graduation or an equivalent diploma course to receive the benefit. Such eligible youth would be paid Rs 1000 per month and the benefit would be deposited directly in the bank account.

The youth registered under the scheme and eligible to receive the benefit would also be given skill training by the government agencies to get some suitable job. Once a job is given, the youth would be removed from the eligibility list. The government would also make available its eligible youth list to various private companies for recruitment.

According to the initial estimate, the scheme would benefit around 10 lakh youth across the State and it would cost Rs 1200 crore to the State government. The government now would start the process, including development of a website to invite the eligible youth to register online. This might take a few months from now and the next round of Cabinet would have to give its approval.