PM to launch `50,000 cr job guarantee scheme

It will be launched on Saturday in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday launch a Rs 50,000 crore employment scheme to provide income support to migrant workers who returned to their home states during the Coronavirus lockdown.

The 'Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan' will primarily focus on six states where maximum migrant workers have returned. This massive rural public works scheme will empower and provide livelihood for 125 days to the returnee migrants, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday at a curtain-raiser press briefing on the initiative.

Prime Minister Modi will launch the scheme through video conferencing in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi. The programme will be launched from village Telihar, block Beldaur of Khagaria district of Bihar, which will go for assembly polls later this year. A total of 116 districts with more than 25,000 migrant workers each across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 aspirational districts, Sitharaman said.

These districts are estimated to cover about twothirds of such migrant workers. Villages across 116 districts in the six states will join the launch event through Common Service Centres (CSCS) » The ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan’ will primarily focus on six states where maximum migrant workers have returned

and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, maintaining the norms of social distancing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This campaign of 125 days, which will work in mission mode, will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other, with a resource envelope of Rs 50,000 crore.

"This (Rs 50,000 crore) is part of the Budget. What is the key thing about this...we are bringing convergence, we are frontloading the money.

"The other key thing is it is directly tying up with all the migrant workers who have reached their districts...all of them are going to result in asset creation," Sitharaman said. The scheme will be a coordinated effort by 12 different ministries, including rural development, panchayati raj, road transport and highways, mines, drinking water and sanitation, environment, railways, petroleum and natural gas, new and renewable energy, telecom and agriculture.