E-Paper
22 districts identified for job guarantee scheme
UNEMPLOYED VILLAGERS will no longer be short of jobs. The State Government will be bound by law to provide them not less than 100 days? guaranteed work in a year, failing which the State will have to provide unemployment allowance to them.
UNEMPLOYED VILLAGERS will no longer be short of jobs.
The State Government will be bound by law to provide them not less than 100 days’ guaranteed work in a year, failing which the State will have to provide unemployment allowance to them.
Work on what is being termed as the radical Centre-funded National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has started with the institutes like Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Giri Institute of Management, and Administrative Training Institute (ATI) preparing a five-year prospective plan for phased implementation of the scheme.
The scheme will formally be launched in the first quarter of the next fiscal. A door-to door survey will identify the eligible candidates in each village. They will be issued employment guarantee cards which will entitle them to employment within 6 km of a rural area.
The Department of Rural Development has identified, in the first phase, the State’s 22 most backward districts for implementing the UPA Government’s dream project. The districts are Azamgarh, Banda, Barabanki, Chandauli, Chitrakoot, Fatehapur, Gorakhpur, Hamirpur, Hardoi, Jalaun, Jaunpur, Kaushambi, Kheri, Kushinagar, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Sonebhadra and Unnao.
A plan already prepared for a few of the districts indicates that as much as Rs 80-90 crore will be required to be pumped into one district for carrying out development for five years in order to generate employment. The scheme is open to adults of all sections. They will be engaged in labour-intensive work like water recharge, digging canals, tree plantation etc.
The existing Food for Work and Integrated Rural Employment Scheme have been merged with the new scheme which has to be executed in all the State’s villages within the next five years. The scheme being implemented after the Parliament enacted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, requires the State to provide not less than 100 days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas. Anyone getting work under the new scheme would, as decided by UP Government, get Rs 60 per day. The money will, however, go to his bank account.
However, if an applicant is not provided employment within 15 days of receipt of his application, he shall be entitled to a daily employment allowance, which will be half of the wages. Expenses on allowance will be have to be borne by the State as penalty. A Central Employment Guarantee Council in Delhi and a State Employment Guarantee Scheme Council in Lucknow will be set up to monitor execution of the scheme.
According to a senior rural development officer, village panchayats have been made responsible for identifying projects under the scheme. He said a BDO level officer, with his own staff would be posted in each block to implement the NREGS.
