Unused rural funds hint migrants may be back at work in cities
With just one month left for the plan to wind up, the Narendra Modi government has so far spent just 56% of the funds on a special initiative to provide employment to migrant workers who returned home during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and the lockdown enforced to prevent its spread.
The Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan was launched on June 20 by Prime Minister Modi from Bihar’s Telihar village. Under the scheme, works worth ₹50,000 crore were to be provided to the migrant workers for 125 days — a little more than four months. An analysis of government data shows that at the end of 95 days, only ₹28,138 crore has been spent.
Official data also shows that 300.69 million days of work — in other words, just about 10% of the total Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) mandays for this year — have been generated through the special intervention.
As millions of migrant workers started returning home after the lockdown was enforced on March 25 amid a jobs crunch in the big cities, the government devised the Rozgar Abhiyan to provide jobs to skilled and unskilled workers. The Centre announced that a “focused campaign” will run in mission mode for 125 days across 116 districts in six states.
“In 125 days, nearly 25 schemes will be brought together to reach saturation. These will include Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Gram Sadak Yojna, Jal Jeevan Yojna, PM Gram Sadak Yojna, etc,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said. As the programme enters its last month, Indian Railways emerged as the top employer, generating one in every 3 mandays under the
scheme. “The Indian Railways has generated 10,66,246 mandays of work till 25 September 2020 under Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan in 6 States viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh,” the ministry stated on Sunday. Construction of rural