Yuva Utsaha Prakalpa, 2013 for Job-Seekers of West Bengal

Government of West Bengal
Labour Department
Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata-700001

No. 175-Emp Dated: 29.08.2013.

RESOLUTION

The state Government has set up Employment Bank, a web based job portal, for the jobseekers of the state to increase their employment opportunity in all possible manners. The response of the job-seekers has been overwhelming and they have registered their names in the Employment Bank job-portal in huge numbers. It has been under active consideration of the Government to provide Unemployment Assistance to the enrolled job-seekers of Employment Bank so that they can increase their employability or become suitable to set up Self-employment ventures by upgrading their level of skills through skill training. After careful consideration of the matter, the Governor is pleased to introduce a scheme titled “Yuva Utsaha Prakalpa (YUP)-2013” to be implemented throughout the state of West Bengal with effect from 01.10.2013, the details of which are given below:-

1. OBJECTIVE:

The objective of the scheme is to provide unemployment assistance to the enrolled jobseekers of Employment Bank to enable them to upgrade their level of skill in order to make them employable or suitable for setting up of self-employment ventures.

2. SHORT TITLE:

The scheme may be known as the “YUVA UTSAHA PRAKALPA (YUP)-2013“

3. IMPLEMENTING AGENCY:

The Directorate of Employment under the Labour Department, Government of West Bengal shall implement the scheme.

4. DEFINITIONS:

In this scheme unless the context otherwise requires,

i) ‘Applicant’ means a jobseeker enrolled with the Employment Bank and applied for financial assistance under this scheme.

ii) ‘Department’ means the Labour Department, government of West Bengal.

iii) ‘Directorate’ means the Directorate of Employment, West Bengal.

iv) ‘Employment Bank’ means the web based job portal established and owned by the Government of West Bengal.

v) ‘Family’ means parents, spouse, sons, daughters, dependent brothers and sisters.

vi) ‘Job seeker” means a person enrolled as ‘job seeker’ with the Employment Bank.

vii) “Institute” means a government or private establishment suitable for imparting training to the applicants of this scheme.

viii) “Prescribed” means prescribed by instructions issued in this regard by the State Government/ Directorate of Employment, West Bengal.

ix) “Skill” means technical knowledge, both theoretical and practical in any trade/ job.

x) “SDO” means Sub Divisional Officer of the Sub Divisions of West Bengal.

xi) “Central Management Cell” means the nodal cell attached to the Employment Bank

xii) “Kolkata District” means area comprising within Kolkata Municipal Corporation Jurisdiction.

5. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

A) In order to be eligible to apply for unemployment assistance under this scheme a person should conform to the following criteria:-

1. He/She must be unemployed and a resident of West Bengal.

2. He/She should be enrolled with the Employment Bank as ‘job seeker’.

3. His /Her Educational Qualification should be Class VIII pass and above.

4. Should be between 18-45 years of age on the 1st day of April of the year in which he/she is considered under the scheme.

5. He/ She has not availed financial assistance /loan under any state/central government sponsored Self-Employment scheme.

B) Only one member of a family is eligible to receive assistance under the scheme.

6. PERIOD AND QUANTUM OF ASSISTANCE:

6.1. Subject to fulfilment of the aforesaid eligibility criteria an individual may receive unemployment assistance under the scheme @ Rupees 1500/-(one thousand five hundred) per month.

6.2. If a certain recipient of unemployment assistance under the scheme becomes ineligible for reasons whatsoever, he/she must forthwith bring the fact to the notice of Employment Bank authority /Sub Divisional Officer concerned and shall not draw the assistance with effect from the date he/she has become ineligible for the assistance.

6.3. It is expected that the recipient will upgrade his/her skill subsequently under any of the Skill Development programmes of the state government/ private training institutes and increase his/her employability.

6.4. The recipient shall submit to the office of the SDO/Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata a self-declaration (Annexure-III) in every six months, so that periodic review could be made to ascertain –

a. as to whether the recipient is utilizing the financial assistance for the right cause and undergoing some training course/s to upgrade his/her skill

b. as to whether the recipient still conforms to the eligibility criteria to receive unemployment assistance under the scheme.

7. COVERAGE:

The scheme will cover the entire state of West Bengal.

8. HOW TO APPLY:

8.1. Subject to fulfilment of the above mentioned eligibility criteria a desirous applicant may apply for unemployment assistance in a prescribed form (Annexure-I) to be available in the Employment Bank web portal along with Unemployment certificate (Annexure-II).

8.2. The “Central Management Cell”, at the outset, will prepare a District/Sub Division -wise list of the first one lakh enrolled job-seekers from the Employment Bank database and inform them, through e-mail/SMS that they can apply for Unemployment Assistance subject to fulfilment of the eligibility criteria. For those Jobseekers, borne in the aforesaid list and having no mobile phone number or e-mail ID, the SDO/Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata shall inform them by post in due course.

8.3. The Labour Department will simultaneously publish advertisement in the Newspapers to disseminate all relevant information including eligibility criteria, date and mode of submission of application etc.

8.4. Applicants will submit their filled in applications with required documents to the office of the Sub Divisional Officer concerned/ Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata within the specified time period. He/She shall have to possess a bank account in his/her name with any nationalized bank, preferably S.B.I.

9. SELECTION OF BENEFICIARIES:

9.1. The State Government will provide Unemployment Assistance to a maximum of one lakh jobseekers annually.

9.2. In case of Kolkata District, the Joint Director of Employment Kolkata shall be the sanctioning authority. For the rest of West Bengal, concerned SDOs shall act as sanctioning authority.

9.3. The selection of the applicants shall be done strictly on ‘First come, first served’ basis taking into account the date and time of enrolment of the applicant in the Employment Bank and on fulfilment of the eligibility criteria laid down in this regard.

9.4. Whenever a recipient becomes employed or otherwise becomes ineligible for Unemployment Assistance, next job-seeker enrolled in the Employment Bank will be considered for this assistance within the quota of one lakh.

10. VERIFICATION OF APPLICATIONS AND SANCTIONING OF UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE:

10.1. The SDO of the concerned Sub Division/Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata after receiving applications from the enrolled job-seekers will scrutinize them to ascertain as to whether the applicants are eligible for the assistance and verify from the list prepared by the ‘Central management Cell’ as to whether the applicant is within the first one lakh job-seekers enrolled in the Employment Bank. The Joint/Deputy Director of Employment-In charge of the District shall provide the SDO with the authenticated list of such Job -Seekers pertaining to his Sub-Division. In case of Kolkata, the Director, Employment will provide the list to the Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata.

10.2. After being satisfied about their eligibility the SDO/Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata shall sanction each and every application and prepare a list of eligible applicants which will contain- enrolment number, name of the applicant, name of the head of the family he/she belongs to, date of birth, bank account number, IFS code of the bank etc.

10.3. Immediately thereafter the SDO/Joint Director of Employment will send a requisition of actual requirement of fund to the Director of Employment.

11. MAINTENANCE OF REGISTERS:

11.1. A book record (Register EB-I) shall be prepared and maintained by the office of the SDO/Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata for the job-seekers who have submitted applications for Unemployment Assistance and the cases sanctioned/rejected.

11.2. The SDO/Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata will maintain necessary Books of Account as per standard practice laid down in the West Bengal Financial Rules.

12. PROVISION OF FUND:

On the basis of the District/ Sub-Division-wise list of enrolled job seekers prepared by the ‘Central Management Cell’ of the Employment Bank and on receipt of requisition from the SDOs/Joint Director of Employment Kolkata, the Director of Employment will calculate the amount of fund required to provide Unemployment Assistance to the job-seekers of each Sub Division/Kolkata and for the state as a whole and approach the Administrative Department for allotment of fund. The Labour Department will augment the budget and after obtaining sanction from the Finance Department, make the fund available to the Director of Employment.

13. MODE OF PAYMENT:

Payment of Unemployment Assistance would be made directly in the Bank Accounts of the applicants through Electronic Fund Transfer System. The procedure to be followed is enumerated below:-

a) Director of Employment shall open one Fund Transfer (F/T) Account (Current Account) centrally with State Bank of India in Kolkata.

b) For operation of the scheme at the Sub -Division level, similar Fund Transfer Accounts have to be opened with the S.B.I by the SDOs of all Sub Division of the state. After the opening of such F/T bank accounts, the SDOs shall apprise the Director of Employment, West Bengal about the details of the bank account Viz. Account Number, Name of the Bank Branch, IFS Code etc. In case of Kolkata, such F/T Account shall be opened by Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata.

c) On receipt of the Budgetary allotment in the process as stated in Para 12.1, the Directorate of Employment will draw the required amount of money by submitting Bill in prescribed manner (T.R. FORM NO.36(A) to the Kolkata Pay and Accounts office.

d) The cheque received from the Pay and Accounts office shall be deposited to the State level Fund Transfer(F/T) account with an ‘advice’ to transfer the fund to the F/T accounts of the SDOs of all the Sub-Divisions /Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata of the state. A ‘Disbursement Report’ may be obtained from the bank after complete transfer of fund is made to the bank accounts of the SDOs/ Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata District.

e) As soon as the fund is received /credited to the F/T account of the Sub- Division ,the SDO/ Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata District will submit similar ‘advice’ to the bank in the prescribed manner (Statement-I for the applicants having accounts with S.B.I branches and Statement-II for the applicants having accounts with other nationalised bank branches) to credit the amount to the accounts of individual beneficiaries opened in various nationalised banks, preferably State Bank of India.

f) The ‘Disbursement Report’ may be collected by the SDOs/ Joint Director of Employment, Kolkata District from all the banks where Sub-Divisional level F/T accounts are being operated and the remaining balance, if any, after fund transfer to the bank accounts of all the applicants may be intimated within 15 days to the Director of Employment directly or through the Joint/Deputy Director of Employment -in charge of the District.

g) In case of opening of Bank Accounts proposed as above, the provisions made in the Finance (Audit) Department Memo No. 675-F dt. 22.01.2008 may be observed.

14. STATE LEVEL MONITORING COMMITTEE:

A state level monitoring committee may be set up by the Government to review and monitor the progress of the scheme at regular intervals. The composition of the monitoring committee would be decided upon in due course.

This order issues with the concurrence of Finance Department vide their U.O.No. 152 ,Group-‘L’ dated 13.08.2013and with the approval of the cabinet held on 29th August 2013.

ORDER

Ordered that the Resolution be published in the Official Gazette and sent to all concerned.

By order of the Governor

Sd/- Amal Roy Chowdhury
Secretary to the Government of West Bengal

Annexure – I: Application for Unemployment Assistance
Annexure – II: Certificate of Unemployment
Annexure – III: Format for Self Declaration

Resolution, Source