All the 23 districts in the relatively prosperous western Uttar Pradesh (UP) have lost out on the Central government’s ambitious Rs 50,000-crore “Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan,” which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning. The scheme is aimed at boosting employment and livelihood opportunities for migrant workers, who have returned to their native villages amid the easing of nationwide lockdown restrictions that were enforced from March 25 to contain the spread of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
The scheme, which will run for 125 days, is available for only those districts in the country that have received over 25,000 migrant workers.
The western UP’s 23 districts have failed to make the grade for the Centre’s new job scheme because of the lack of the number of migrant workers required to qualify for the initiative.
The Central government has identified 116 districts across six states under this scheme, including UP, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Odisha, in a bid to create infrastructure through public works that support job creation in the migrant returnees’ villages.
In UP, 31 districts, mostly from the eastern part of the state, have made the cut for the scheme.
They are Siddharthnagar, Prayagraj, Gonda Maharajganj, Baharaich, Balrampur, Jaunpur, Hardoi, Azamgarh, Basti, Gorakhpur, Sultanpur, Kushinagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Banda, Ambedkarnagar, Sitapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Ayodhya, Deoria, Amethi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Unnao, Shrawasti, Fatehpur, Mirzapur, Jalaun, and Kaushambi districts.
“Eastern UP has been traditionally known for migrant workers, unlike western UP, which is comparatively more prosperous and known for local job creation,” said Suresh Chandra, additional chief secretary (labour).
{{/usCountry}}“Eastern UP has been traditionally known for migrant workers, unlike western UP, which is comparatively more prosperous and known for local job creation,” said Suresh Chandra, additional chief secretary (labour).
{{/usCountry}}A report, prepared by the office of the relief commissioner and seen by HT, showed that over 26 lakh migrant workers have returned to their respective districts between May 1 and June 11.
In some of the western UP districts, such as Ghaziabad, Shamli, Hapur and Meerut, around 1,000 migrants or less than that have returned since the easing of the lockdown restrictions.
Ghaziabad brought out the rear with only 289 returnees.
On the contrary, eastern UP districts such as Gorakhpur and Prayagraj received over one lakh migrant returnees each.
Siddharthnagar topped the state with 1,60,455 and Lucknow accounted for 3,449.
The state Panchayati Raj department had collected the data on the migrant returnees during lockdown 1:0 in end-March, when over 5.5 lakh returned home, largely from Delhi-national capital region (NCR).
Altogether over 31 lakh migrants have returned to the state to date, the officials added.
IN FIGURES
Total no of migrant workers returned to UP between May 1 and June 11: 26,014,49
Total no of migrants returned to UP during lockdown 1:0 in end-March: 5,525,64
Total no of migrants released from transit camps in UP after screening between May 1 and June 11: 2,578,397
Total no of migrants living in transit camps after screening as on June 11: 31,776
Total no of migrants sent to dedicated Covid-19 hospitals and care centres after screening till June 11: 20,245
Districts receiving most migrants (May 1 to June 11)
District Migrant Returnees
Siddharthnagar - 1,604,55
Prayagraj - 1,40,331
Gonda - 1,179,35
Gorakhpur - 1,057,71
Sant Kabir Nagar - 1,033,07
Districts receiving least/no of migrants
District Migrant Returnees
Ghaziabad - 289
Hapur - 535
Shamli - 847
Meerut - 1,001
Mathura - 1,844
(Source: UP Government)