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15,000 migrants got jobs or left city, says Greater Noida authority as those seeking free meals reduce
The Greater Noida authority said at least 15,000 migrant labourers have left the city or joined work as the number of those seeking free meals provided by the administration has reduced.
As compared to 45,000 people being fed earlier, the authority now supplies food to about 30,000 migrant workers daily.
“The others have either left for their home towns or started work at construction sites that resumed operations after the lockdown norms were relaxed on May 4,” Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer, Greater Noida authority, said.
Since the nationwide lockdown started on May 25, the Greater Noida authority started serving food to migrant daily wage earners who were left jobless as construction sites and factories shut down. The authority had set up four kitchens -- two each in Greater Noida East and Greater Noida West -- to serve two meals daily to migrants and others.
)n May 4, after the lockdown norms were eased to allow construction sites and factories to resume operations, these enterprises took back some of the jobless migrant workers. So far, the authority has allowed 524 factories and 137 construction sites to resume operations. The factories have engaged 27,704 workers and the construction sites have employed 15,527 workers, the Noida authority officials said.
Officials said that the number of needy people, who avail of the free food has decreased rapidly over the past few days.
“Most migrant workers want to leave the city as and when they get an opportunity and transport facilities. The work at all factories is yet to resume due to restrictions still in place. We feel that a majority of workers have left for their home towns,” Pankaj Singh, president, Greater Noida industry association, said.
Construction sites are yet to start full-fledged work due to some riders in place when permission was granted by the authority.
“We started work with the workers available at the site. But we are yet to sufficient number of workers, construction material and the required skilled labour to resume full-fledged operations,” RK Arora, president, National Real Estate Development Council (Uttar Pradesh), a builders’ group, said.
