New Delhi, June 20, 2020: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20 launched a program to generate jobs in rural India for migrant workers returning home amid the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown.
The prime minister said the “Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan” (Job scheme for welfare of the poor) had been “inspired by migrants” whose heart-breaking condition during the lockdown has made headlines.
Laborers, who had earlier contributed to the development of cities, would now be provided jobs nearer to their hometowns and villages, he added.
“Today is a historic day, a scheme for the welfare and for the livelihood of the poor has been started. My laborer friends, the country understands your emotions and your needs. The campaign, starting from Bihar, is a major tool to fulfill this need and emotion,” Modi was quoted by news agency ANI.
“Migrants will be provided jobs near their homes. So far, you were using your talents for progress of cities. Now you will help in developing your villages, neighborhoods,” he said, adding the scheme had been “inspired by migrants”.
The program will run for 125 days in 116 districts across six states – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Rajasthan. Each state has a large number of laborers returning home after being left unemployed by the coronavirus lockdown.
The program seeks to create infrastructure worth 500 billion rupees through public works that support job creation in the rural parts of the country.
Hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers, left without food, shelter or jobs by the abruptly-enforced coronavirus lockdown in March, were forced to travel hundreds, often thousands of kilometers, home in searing heat.
The federal eventually began operating special trains to help migrants return home. This, however, posed a fresh problem for state governments – finding employment for the returning workers.
On June 19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had indicated the federal government had “meticulously mapped the skill sets of migrant workers.”
The launch was attended by Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Minister for Rural Development and the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh (Yogi Adityanath), Bihar (Nitish Kumar), Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) and Rajasthan (Ashok Gehlot).
During the event, the Prime Minister also spoke to migrant workers from different parts of the country to ask them about difficulties they faced during the lockdown.
Source: ndtv.com
What has MODI done for those who have lost their kith and kin during the past 4 months? Modi must openly apologize for the death of hundreds of migrant workers and the 13000 plus people who died due to Covid-19. He and his party are responsible for the “Himalayan Blunders”.