Additional chief secretary Manoj Srivastava said the government expects nearly a million people to get new job cards. (Rerpesentational)
With lakhs of migrant workers having returned to their homes in the last few days, the Madhya Pradesh government Friday launched Shram Siddhi Abhiyan that promises to give work to every unskilled worker in the rural area, and also collect a database of skilled workers that can be shared with industries.
A door-to-door survey will be carried out to find out people without job cards and give them work under MGNREGA. Simultaneously, surveyors will collect information about skilled workers now without work and the government will share the data with industrial units in respective areas.
Additional chief secretary Manoj Srivastava told The Indian Express that such a survey for job cards was carried out in 2006. He said the government expects nearly a million people to get new job cards. He said as on Friday, the government was providing employment to nearly 21 lakh workers in 22,809 gram panchayats under MGNREGA, which is two times the number in the corresponding period last year.
While launching the campaign, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said unskilled workers will be given jobs under MGNREGA and skilled workers will be employed elsewhere. He, however, did not elaborate where the skilled workers will be given jobs.
Referring to the BJP government’s claim about having brought nearly five lakh workers in buses and trains, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath said if the numbers are true, they point to the failure of the 15-year-rule of the BJP that failed to stop migration of workers by providing them jobs here.
Activist Ajay Dubey alleged that the campaign was an attempt to divert attention and questioned the numbers. “When government agencies and departments are not working to their full capacity, where have these jobs been provided?”