Over 80% migrants who returned to Uttarakhand provided MNREGA jobs

Of the 103,000 people who have been provided new job cards under the scheme, over 80,000 have been offered employment

Around 80% of migrants workers, who returned to Uttarakhand after losing their jobs because of the nationwide lockdown imposed in March to check the Covid-19 pandemic spread, have been provided jobs under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), officials aware of the matter said. New job cards under the scheme have been provided to over 103,000 people since April. Over 80,000 of them have been offered employment.

Migrant workers at a railway station after returning to Uttarakhand from other parts of the country. (HT file/fFr representational purpose)

State MNREGA coordinator Mohammad Aslam said as the people started returning to the state, they tried to expand avenues to give them jobs. “...maximum jobs have been given in Tehri Garhwal district [12,570] followed by Udham Singh Nagar [11,739]. The least number of jobs have been given in Nainital district [2,048],” he said.

“We have a budget of Rs 700 crore for this financial year, and since migrants started returning, over Rs 340 crore have been spent on wages. The number of people associated with activities under MNREGS has increased by almost 2 lakhs [200,000] from April to September this year compared to last year.”

There are over 736,000 MNREGS job card holders in the state.