Centre's employment scheme for migrant workers to give new base to rural development: Yogi

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for selecting 31 districts of Uttar Pradesh under an employment scheme for migrant workers.

Adityanath said the campaign will give a new base to rural welfare and development and also play an important role in providing livelihood in villages.

Modi on Saturday launched 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' for migrant workers, saying that during the coronavirus-induced lockdown the talent from cities returned to villages and it will now give a boost to development in rural areas.

He said there are some people who may not appreciate efforts of villagers in the fight against the novel coronavirus but he applauds them for their efforts. The way villages have fought coronavirus has taught a big lesson to the cities, he added.

This scheme will focus on durable rural infrastructure and providing modern facilities like Internet in the villages, Modi said.

The Uttar Pradesh districts chosen under the scheme are Siddharthanagar, Prayagraj, Gonda, Maharajganj, Bahraich, Balrampur, Jaunpur, Hardoi, Azamgarh, Basti, Gorakhpur, Sultanpur, Kushinagar, Santkabirnagar, Banda, Ambedkarnagar, Sitapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Ayodhya, Deoria, Amethi, Lakhimpur Khiri, Unnao, Shravasti, Fatehpur, Mirzapur, Jalaun and Kaushambi.

The 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' was launched by Modi via video-conference in a village in Katihar district of Bihar in the presence of chief ministers of five states -- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand -- and a minister from Odisha.

The scheme with an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore will be implemented on mission mode in 125 days in 116 districts of the six states to which the maximum number of the migrant workers have returned.

The mission will be a convergent effort between 12 different ministries/ departments such as Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport and Highways, Mines, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum and Natural Gas, New and Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom, and Agriculture.

It will help expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure works and those related to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.

These 25 works are related to rural housing for the poor, plantations, provision of drinking water through Jal Jeevan Mission, and construction of panchayat bhavans, community toilets, rural mandis, rural roads, cattle sheds and anganwadi bhavans, according to the Ministry of Rural Development, which is the nodal ministry for the project.