Since the victory of the SP,which promised unemployment allowance if voted to power,employment exchanges are swamped by people seeking registration. On Monday,about 25,000 people turned up at the exchange in Lucknow,and the police had to be called to maintain order. By the end of the day,more than 10,000 of them were registered which,officials say,was a record of sorts.
Similar reports were received from other parts of the state,including Kanpur and Moradabad.
Although the number of people started increasing after the SP came out with its manifesto last month,the staff had never expected that there would be such a rush. Since 8 in the morning,people started lining up for registration, P K Pundir,Regional Employment Officer of Lucknow,said.
As many as 20 counters were opened and some of the queues were a kilometre long. Pundir said he had written to the district magistrate to arrange facilities to manage the crowds Tuesday onwards.
The forms,which are otherwise sold between 10 am and 1.30 pm,are now being sold all day and the staff has been asked to report for work at 9 am.
In all of January,1,572 people were registered at the Lucknow exchange. After the release of the SP manifesto promising jobs as well as unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 per month for youth above 35,the number of registrations in February went up to 7,329. In March,till last week,already 9,596 registrations had been done.
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