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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Gareeb Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan on Saturday. An official statement said that it is aimed to boost employment and livelihood opportunities for migrant workers returning to villages, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
"We are endeavouring to ensure that those returning to their villages find jobs at their doorsteps," Modi said.
He said that an amount of ₹ 50,000 crore has been earmarked for this scheme. Under the program, works that cover 25 kinds of skillsets and categories have identified. These will help develop the villages of the country.
"These 25 works or projects are related to meet the needs of the villages like rural housing for the poor, Plantations, provision of drinking water through Jal Jeevan mission, Panchayat Bhavans, community toilets, rural mandis, rural roads, other infrastructure like Cattle Sheds, Anganwadi Bhavans among others," an official statement said.
Modi said that Abhiyan shall also provide modern facilities in rural areas. He said it is of great necessity that high speed and cheap internet be provided in every rural household to help the youth and children.
He said it is the first time that the rural areas are using more internet than the urban areas. Hence the laying of fibre cable and provision of internet are also made a part of the Abhiyan.
This Abhiyaan is to run for 125 days and will be spread over 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in six states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha, an official statement said.
It will be a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely; Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture.
In another statement detailing the progress achieved under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package, the Finance Ministry statement, "More than 42 crore poor people received financial assistance of ₹ 65,454 crore under the package."
The statement said that ₹ 17,891 crore has been front loaded towards payment of the first instalment of PM-KISAN to 8.94 crore beneficiaries. A total of ₹ 2814.5 crore has been disbursed to about 2.81 crore old age persons, widows and disabled persons in two installments.
Under District Mineral Fund (DMF), States have been asked to spend 30 per cent of the funds,which amounts to ₹ 3,787 crore and that ₹ 183.65 crore has been spent so far.
The statement said that 8.52 crore Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) cylinders have been booked and already delivered for April and May 2020 under this scheme so far.
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