Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj held a demonstration in Mysuru on Sunday urging the State government to take necessary steps to provide employment to graduates and diploma holders instead of handing out a monthly dole.
Speaking to reporters at a demonstration at Sri Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Circle, earlier known as Hardinge Circle, Mr. Nagaraj said the State government was “insulting” the young graduates and diploma holders by providing the unemployed among them ₹3,000 and ₹1,500 respectively every month instead of providing them employment.
The monthly financial support given by the State government under its Yuva Nidhi scheme was a measly sum that was not enough even to buy themselves a dosa and tea in a hotel, Mr. Nagaraj said while urging the government to appoint a Minister exclusively dedicated to looking into the total number of graduates and diploma holders passing out of the educational institutions in the State so that necessary employment avenues are created for them.
He said the multinational companies operating in the State were providing jobs to people from different parts of the country while denying the same to locals. The government should ensure that the local Kannadigas are also employed in the multinational and other private firms in the State.
Mr. Nagaraj also criticized the institutions of higher learning in the State run by politicians from either Congress, BJP or JD(S) leaders, besides religious mutts for charging hefty donations for admissions, virtually making them inaccessible to the Kannadiga youth.
The institutions were providing admission to youth from outside Karnataka, who were coughing a huge sum of money, he lamented.
He also found fault with the State government’s guarantee schemes for being “women-centric”. Schemes like Shakti and Gruha Lakshmi were focused only on women, leaving the men high and dry, he lamented.
