Govt to set up labour recruitment office in Gkp

Uttar Pradesh government will soon set up the third office of its official recruitment agency for foreign employers, the UPFC Overseas Manpower Recruitment Agency (UPFCOMRA), in Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

A team of the union government’s Protector General of Emigrants has already visited Gorakhpur and the licence for the office is likely to be issued soon.

“Yes, we hope the formalities for getting licence for Gorakhpur office of UPFCOMRA will be completed soon. Besides being associated with the chief minister, Gorakhpur is an important town of east UP from where a number of skilled/unskilled workers seek jobs abroad. A team of Protector General of Immigrants has already conducted inspection of the site of the proposed office,” said an officer.

The UPFCOMRA is the official recruitment agency set up at the behest of state government to help, guide and recruit skilled/ unskilled workers for employers abroad. “The state government had asked the Uttar Pradesh Financial Corporation (UPFC) to set up the UPFCOMRA as 30 percent of skilled/unskilled workers going for skilled/unskilled workers’ jobs abroad are from Uttar Pradesh.

A government agency was set up keeping in view that 90 percent of these workers get recruited through unauthorized agents/ sub-agents that often exploit them,” said the officer.

The UPFCOMRA with its offices in Ghazaibad and Meerut is registered with the ministry for foreign affairs to work as authorized recruitment agent from February 10, 2016 to February 2, 2021. It charges a registration fee of Rs 20,000 per worker.

Principal secretary, NRI department, Alok Sinha had recently presided over a high level meeting to know about progress made for setting up of third office of the agency. “After being set up in 2016 the UPFCOMRA has recruited 93 nurses and recruitment for about 126 more nurses and 50 cleaning staff is under progress,” said sources.

The state government has proposed that the agency should study models worked out in Punjab, Kerala and Telangana etc. The state government in cooperation with the Centre has already set up a Migrant Resource Centre at Lucknow to guide workers about the employment avenues in different countries. The NRI cells are working in regional offices of UPFC in Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Meerut, NOIDA and Varanasi since 2015. The NRI cells take up and try to get resolved with district authorities the complaints received from the NRIs.

We hope the formalities for getting licence for Gorakhpur office of UPFCOMRA will be completed soon. Besides being associated with the chief minister, Gorakhpur is an important town of east UP from where a number of skilled/unskilled workers seek jobs abroad. STATE GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL