Around 1.8 lakh youth have registered with the Congress' latest outreach programme —`Har Ghar Toh Ikk Captain' (A Captain in every house)—in Punjab, which goes to Assembly polls in a few weeks' time.
The campaign, with which the Congress aims to reach out to the young voter, was launched by the party's state unit president and the face of the its election campaign, Capt Amarinder Singh, 11 days ago.
As per the campaign managers of Amarinder, around 1,80,000 registrations have been made under the programme in 11 days. They said there was a demand from the youth that they should be allowed to register online, after which a website www.hargharcaptain.com has been unveiled.
The programme, which is in the series of outreach campaigns that take off on 'brand Amarinder' and are named after him, such as `Coffee with Captain' and 'Halke Vich Captain' (Captain in your district), commits to providing one job per household to every youth between the age of 18 and 35 years.
The ambitious commitment also includes the promise that till the employment is provided, the youth will be given an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,500 per month, for a period of up to 36 months.
Amarinder has pledged that these promises will be fulfilled within 100 days of the Congress coming to power in the state.
In return, the youth and their family members have to pledge that they have to stay away from drugs. Addiction to drugs is a big menace in Punjab, with a sizable proportion of the youth population victimised to this.
The party aims at reaching out to 40 lakh households in the first phase of the campaign. The youth who register under the programme will be given a unique ID card, called 'Berozgari Bhatta Card', which they can use to claim the benefits promised to them after the elections are over in case the Congress comes to power.
