Chhattisgarh: Govt. Halts Youth Welfare Scheme, Alleges Misuse of Funds

Raipur: The Vishnu Deo Sai government on Friday decided to shelve a youth welfare scheme, launched by the previous Bhupesh Baghel regime in the state around two and half years ago, contending that it was launched to benefit the vested interests.

Rajiv Yuva Mitan Club Yojana, launched in Chhattisgarh by the previous Bhupesh Baghel government on September 18, 2021, with the objective of promoting sports and culture in the rural belt in the state by establishing youth clubs, has been stopped by the state BJP government as part of its measures to enforce fiscal discipline by plugging leakages, official sources said.

“The scheme was launched by the previous Congress government in the state to benefit the vested interests. The scheme had hardly benefitted the youths and never served its purpose”, state sports and youth welfare minister Tankram Verma said.

A senior state government officer disclosed to this newspaper that the government sought fund utilisation certificates of all these clubs in the state from the district collectors concerned and took the decision to do away with the scheme after reviewing it.

As many as 13,242 Rajiv Yuva Mitan Clubs had been established in the state after the scheme was launched around two and half years ago.

Under the scheme, each youth club which has 20-40 members has been given a grant of Rs 25,000 every three months by the state government to promote sports and culture in the area and link the local youths to cleanliness drives in their respective areas.

A total of Rs 132 crore has so far been sanctioned to these clubs.

Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai has earlier declared that all the schemes launched by the previous Bhupesh Baghel government would be reviewed and accountability would be fixed if irregularities were found in the implementation of the schemes.