BARIPADA: Baripada Municipality has come to the aid of migrant workers by offering them jobs under the Urban Wage Employment Initiative (UWEI). The workers, who have completed their institutional and home quarantine have been engaged in 24 projects and are being paid on a daily basis at rates fixed by the civic body. The projects range from painting on walls to construction of drains in the town. City Mission Manager of UWEI Soubhagya Sikta Pattnayak said the initiative is meant to provide temporary employment opportunities to the workers and urban poor.
As of now, 400 workers have been engaged in the projects and the number will go up as 56 projects are in the pipeline. The projects are being monitored by the civic body authorities. While projects with budget of more than Rs 1 lakh are being monitored by junior engineers, those with less than Rs 1 lakh are being supervised by women self help groups. The workers are being paid Rs 350- Rs 375 per day as per the skills possessed by them.