Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a massive rural public works scheme, Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, in six states. He said, this Abhiyan will provide livelihood opportunities to the migrant workers and will help in the development of rural areas by creating local infrastructure.

At the outset, the Prime Minister paid his homage to the martyr who sacrificed their lives while protecting the borders in Ladakh saying that he wants to assure that the entire country stands with the Army and families who lost their beloved ones.

Mr. Modi said, the government is making every effort so that people do not have to take loans from anyone while living in the villages during this corona pandemic crisis. He said, the self-reliant India campaign-Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan started with the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana and within a few weeks, about 1.75 lakh crore rupees were spent on the scheme. He said, free ration and pulses have been provided to 80 crore poor people in three months. Mr. Modi said, more than 10 thousand crore rupees have been transferred to 20 crore women-Jan Dhan’s accounts. He said this was made possible due to the infrastructure created in the past years for the smooth transfer of money directly in the accounts of the poor people. He said, for self reliant India, self reliant farmers are equally important and by keeping this in mind, the government has abolished several discriminatory laws in the past few days. He said, now farmers can sell their produce to anyone and anywhere without any hurdle and it will empower them.

Prime Minister launched the campaign through remote from Telihar village in Khagaria District of Bihar in presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with other Chief Ministers and Union Rural Development Minister.

The campaign will be operationalized through the Common Service Centres and Krishi Vigyan Kendras in the districts. The Abhiyaan is being introduced through the coordinated effort of 12 different Ministries and 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.

The campaign of 125 days will be implemented on mission mode. It will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country. A total of 116 Districts with more than 25 thousand returnee migrant workers across six States, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 Aspirational Districts. These districts are estimated to cover about two third of such migrant workers.

In Jharkhand, three aspirational districts of Hazaribagh, Godda and Giridih out of the 116 selected districts have been covered under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyaan Rozgaar Abhiyaan inaugurated online today by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Migrants who have returned to their native places post the COVID -19 lockdown situation are hopeful of finding a job based on their skills. The new scheme shall provide employment opportunities to around 45000 thousand people who have migrated back in these three districts, and are hopeful of finding skill-based jobs in MSME, small sector units, agricultural and telecom units.

According to government’s data, around 5 lakh twelve thousand migrant labourers have returned to the state so far .  Deputy Commissioners of all three Aspirational districts of the state have been instructed by Secretary of Rural Development Department Aradhana Patnaik to work as per the plan charted out for employment generation to the migrants. Giridih DC has also planned to introduce skill based apprenticeship certification programme for the migrants   DC Giridih informed

Migrant laborer Md. Amin says that the lockdown did not provide work for months in Mumbai, and is now happy to work in the village and live with the family.