NREGA  funds to labourers

Giving further respite to daily wagers during the lockdown to prevent coronavirus spread in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath transferred Rs 611 crore to over 27.15 lakh labourers engaged in schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on Monday.

The chief minister also interacted with MGNREGA workers of Bahraich, Varanasi, Sonbhadra and Deoria through video conferencing and also informed them about the initiative.

“You will also get three months’ free ration and free LPG cylinders under Ujjawala scheme,” he said and asked them about problems they were facing during the lockdown.

While interacting with the labourers, Yogi said the government was committed to looking after the well-being of the people and even spoke to a woman labourer, Sansita Devi of Varanasi, in Bhojpuri.

The chief minister said that at a time when the whole world was terrified of the global pandemic, the Rural Development department and State Bank of India had jointly sent Rs 611 crore to the accounts of more than 27.15 lakh MGNREGA workers of the state.

“By looking at the situation of migrating labourers due to the lockdown, one can easily guess what the value of this money is for them. In fact, self-employment oriented schemes will play a big role in leading to economic independence,” he said.

Yogi said that the Union government was also making efforts to provide 1 kg of pulses per month for the next three months and free cooking gas cylinders for three months to labourers under Ujjwala scheme.

“The state government has also made a provision of providing free food grains to more than 80 lakh MGNREGA workers. This is important for benefiting 80 crore poor people by these schemes all over the country. Besides, all women beneficiaries who have accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana will get an additional amount of Rs 500 per month,” he said.

Apart from this, the Union government would provide Rs 1,000 per month to old age, destitute women and handicapped pension holders for three months.

The chief minister said that during the last three years, Uttar Pradesh had achieved major goal in the creation of man-days (manav diwas) under MGNREGA schemes. A total of 15.69 crore man days were created in 2016-17 while 24.32 crore man days have been made available in 2019-20.

“The government will be successful in providing package to all needy poor, farmers and citizens in a time-bound manner through welfare schemes crafted for the poor by the Central and state governments,” he added.

The UP government is already giving Rs 1,000 to all registered 20 lakh daily waged labourers of the state.