Odisha CM announces Rs 100 crore employment package for urban poor

Sujit kumar bisoyi | TNN | Apr 18, 2020, 14:09 IST

File photo of Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced Rs 100 crore Urban wage employment initiative that aims to facilitate livelihood opportunities to around 4.5 lakh urban poor living across 114 urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state.
Various labour-intensive works like drain desilting and waste management, repair and renovation of water bodies, redevelopment of parks, playgrounds and other areas, construction of work sheds for self help groups, afforestation activities, construction of toilets and beautification of urban areas will be taken up under the initiative, said a statement issued by the chief minister’s office.
Other activities like wall painting and mural painting would also be taken up under the Urban wage employment initiative to facilitate employment opportunities to the local artists and painters. Work under this initiative would start within a week and it would continue till September, this year while the programme would be implemented by urban local bodies in partnership with women self help groups in urban areas.
“The ULBs will ensure strict adherence of social distancing and all guidelines issued by the state government for Covid-19 management while implementation of various works under the initiative. The programme has been designed to benefit the urban poor, labourers and daily wagers, who are out of works now because of the lockdown restrictions,” said a senior government officer.
The wages of people engaging in these works will be sent directly to their accounts every week.
Daily wage labourers are the worst-hit because of the lockdown as most of them are out of work. Earlier, the state government had ordered to stop all construction works in the urban areas to effectively enforce lockdown