UP provides cash relief to over a million daily earners

The Uttar Pradesh government has provided a cash relief of ~1,000 each to more than a million daily-wage earners, including labourers, whose livelihood was directly hit owing to the coronavirus shutdown.

The amount has been directly credited into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, hailing from both rural and urban areas. So far, more than 1.06 million beneficiaries have been paid over ~106 crore, of which ~4.85 crore was paid on Thursday itself.

The cash-handout scheme is estimated to cost ~353 crore and benefit 3.53 million daily-wagers, comprising 2.03 million construction workers registered with the state labour department, apart from 1.5 million rickshaw-pullers, hawkers, and kiosk owners. (This payment will come later)

Last month, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had constituted a high-level committee headed by UP Infrastructure and Industrial Development (UPIID) Commissioner Alok Tandon to monitor the cash-relief scheme.

The government had also announced that those left out of the scheme would be included for relief payment, depending upon the recommendations of the local authorities.

Meanwhile, the state has facilitated reopening 31 of the 33 units manufacturing personal-protective equipment (PPE) and masks in the state. These units had closed down following the recent lockdown order.

Besides, 410 of the 452 medicine plants had also been reopened and steps are being taken for restarting the remaining units by resolving their grievances pertaining to labour and their passes.

According to the state government press communiqué, the Tandon-led committee has contacted more than 19,000 industrial units, of which 16,142 have so far distributed salaries and wages to their employees, while the remaining 3,000 units were in the process of doing so.