Amid the rise in unemployment due to the lockdown, Jharkhand is all set to launch a 100-day employment scheme for urban unskilled workers similar to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The scheme, a brainchild of Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, will be known as Mukhyamantri SHRAMIK (Shahri Rozgar Manjuri For Kamgar) Yojna. It is aimed at enhancing livelihood security for urban poor.
Jharkhand will be the second state in the country to launch an employment guarantee scheme for the urban poor, after Kerala, which runs Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (AUEGS).
‘Formulation of the scheme has been done. The scheme will be rolled out once it gets approval from the state cabinet,’ Hindustan Times quoted Vinay Kumar Choubey, Jharkhand’s urban development secretary, as saying.
This scheme will have a provision for unemployment allowance, if any urban local body fails to provide work to job seekers within 15 days.
For the first 30 days of unemployment, a worker will be entitled to one-fourth of the wages, which will be half in the second month. A worker who does not get a job for third will be entitled to equal to basic minimum wage.
‘They will be given priority in the existing schemes. If they could not be accommodated in existing schemes, exclusives schemes for the purpose will be created and ULBs would be given separate funds for this. There are lots of opportunities of jobs in urban areas right from sanitation work to development projects,’ Choubey said.
Urban workers would be registered and would be provided job cards. ‘A special website is also being designed, similar to the website functions in MGNREGS,’ Choubey said.
Municipal commissioners, executive offices or special officer of municipal bodies will be the nodal officer of the scheme, which will be conducted by the urban development and housing department through the state urban livelihood mission.
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