Eye on Bihar elections, slew of rural jobs on offer to migrants in six states
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a 125-day employment scheme for migrant workers who returned home in six states by providing Rs 50,000 crore corpus to execute 25 types of works, from Telihar village in poll-bound Bihar on Saturday.Called the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, the scheme aims to give jobs to at least two-thirds of the migrant workers for asset creation spanning 12 ministries and departments. The works include construction of border roads, digging wells, building a gram panchayat bhavan and housing to create rural assets.
Modi will launch the scheme through video conference in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi. Chief ministers of five other states — Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — will also attend the event, the government said in a statement on Thursday.
As many as 116 districts in six states had the maximum influx of migrants who returned home during the lockdown. About 25,000 migrants from each district, including 27 aspirational districts for which the NITI Aayog is administering coordinated developmental works on education, nutrition and health, will be covered under the new scheme.
The scheme is being rolled after the states completed the task of skill mapping of migrants, said a senior official.Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said 25 works of the Central government will be brought together for the identified districts. “The scheme will provide employment for everyone who needs it. The fund allotted to all these works will be pooled together and frontloaded for completion of asset creation within 125 days,” she said.The government is aiming to reach out to the upset migrants by hiring them for developmental works during Unlock 1 and 2.
116 dists expected to benefit from scheme
Most of the migrants who returned home from their worksites are estimated to be from 116 districts in six states. They are the target group for the job scheme
25 types of works part of the job pool
As many as 25 types of works for rural asset creation spanning 12 ministries will be on offer