Jairam Ramesh blames states for not granting unemployment allowance in seven years

Union Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Ramesh said on Monday that not a single person has received an unemployment allowance that they are entitled to receive in India.

"It is sad that in the past seven years not a single person has received an unemployment allowance in India. They are entitled to receive this allowance according to the government," said Ramesh.

"It is the state government's responsibility to provide this unemployment allowance," he said.

Asked to specify a reason for such a late reaction on this issue, he said none of the state governments were accepting their inefficiency.

"None of the states are willing to accept that their states have denied employment to any person in the concerned state," he said.

Addressing media, he said the details of the programme would be put up on the website soon.

"The Ministry of Rural Development will calculate and put up the whole information on the website soon," he said.

"I cannot guarantee unemployment allowance to every person, but we can pressurize the (State) governments," he added.

He said the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) should not just be looked upon as a means of employment.

"NREGA should not just be looked upon as a means of employment but an opportunity provided for development in villages," he said.

"It is true that it usually provides manual labour, but at least, it helps in providing employment and develop villages, by building toilets, constructing buildings to store grains and structures that are crucial for any place," he added.

He said that seven years ago, the focus of NREGA was only land and water management, but now it includes a variety of things.