Over 12 lakh migrants given MNREGS cards in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: More than 12 lakh people have been issued new job cards in the state under the Centre’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) since the nationwide lockdown was clamped, covering almost half of UP’s reverse migration tally of 26 lakh.
Data compiled by the rural development department till Thursday suggest more than 39 lakh people possessed MNREGS cards, more than a month after the rural job-spinner was implemented in a calibrated manner to engage people, essentially migrants, after the first phase of lockdown came to an end.More than eight lakh households were covered under the scheme, generating more than 3 crore mandays after job cards were issued to at least 12,38,979 people.
Speaking to TOI, additional commissioner, MNREGS, Yogesh Kumar, said, the idea was to provide employment under MNREGS to maximum people hit by the lockdown. “The number of job cards has been increasing by 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh people every day,” he said. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has already pitched for engaging 50 lakh workers under MNREGS, amid mammoth reverse migration to Uttar Pradesh.
A maximum of 55,769 job cards, data show, were issued in Azamgarh, which is the parliamentary constituency of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. This was followed by Siddharthnagar (48,088), Ghazipur (42,528), Bareilly (42,528) and Mirzapur (34,871). Of the 75 districts, Ghaziabad was the sole district where new job cards were not issued.
Data shows MNREGS work being carried out in more than 53,300 gram panchayats across the state, including 14,400 panchayats in 20 green districts, 27,500 panchayats in 36 orange districts and 11,300 in red zone districts.
The total number of unskilled labour engaged in green zone is 12.28 lakh and more than 20.21 lakh in orange zone districts. Likewise, more than 6.7 lakh workers were engaged outside containment areas in red zone districts.
Rural development department officials said, people seeking employment under MNREGS were given job cards in respective villages and if anyone did not figure in family’s card, it was added.
As per Centre’s guidelines, MNREGS works could be conducted outside the containment area, for which the state government followed central guidelines in resuming construction work since April 21. Reverse migration had led to economic distress, which could be solved by providing jobs under MNREGS and other sectors.