Centre’s Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan aimed at Bihar polls, says Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren

RANCHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday rolled the Rs 50,000-crore Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan to generate jobs for migrants who lost their livelihoods due to the lockdown, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren dubbed it as an “election jumla” aimed at the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar.
Through video-conferencing from Delhi, Modi started the flagship scheme at Telihar village in Bihar’s Khagaria district on Saturday.The scheme is aimed at covering 116 districts across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Chief ministers of these states, including Hemant, were tuned in through a video hook up during the online launch.
In Jharkhand, three districts — Hazaribag, Giridih and Godda — have been included in this scheme. About 25 focus areas across different departments were chosen for providing jobs in a mission mode in 125 days to build a durable rural infrastructure.
Talking to the media after the launch, Hemant said, “I don’t see anything great in this. Even before the Centre thought of such a plan, we had been doing so under MNREGA for the last one month. So far, we have managed to provide jobs to about six lakh people in rural areas on a daily basis and our target is to touch 10 lakh soon. We are also working out plans to provide jobs in urban areas on the lines of the rural job schemes.”
Hemant also took a dig for giving Jharkhand a raw deal. He said, “Only three districts have been included when poverty and joblessness is at its highest in our state. Majority of our districts are in the category of aspirational districts as per Niti Aayog. In a nutshell, I see the programme as nothing, but another scheme keeping Bihar election in mind.”
Congress, an ally in the Hemant-led dispensation, also denounced the scheme and called it as a piecemeal approach by the Modi government towards Jharkhand and reiterated their demand for special assistance and package. Party spokesperson Alok Dubey said, “Rather than such a piecemeal approach, we would have welcomed if the Centre had agreed to our demand of increasing MNREGA wages, fixed financial incentives to the poor who lost their livelihoods and a special package to the state.”
Another spokesperson, Lal Kishorenath Shahdeo, added, “The state government had also demanded allotment for free distribution of PDS under the food security Act till December, but the Centre hasn’t agreed to it.”
In Hazaribag, one of the chosen district for this scheme, deputy commissioner Bhuvanesh Pratap Singh said, “We plan to rollout the scheme in all the 250 panchayats soon, with an estimated budget of Rs 500 crore at the rate of Rs 2 crore per panchayat. Of the over 62,000 migrants who returned to the district, we have finished skill mapping of 22,203.”
(With inputs from Abhijit Sen in Hazaribag)