Unlock 1.0: UP plans revival of sick units to create jobs for migrants

3 million migrant workers have returned to UP after lockdown

Facing the tough challenge of providing employment to nearly 3 million migrant workers, the Uttar Pradesh government is planning to revive sick industrial units in the state.

Chairing a meeting to review the Unlock 1.0 situation here, chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed the industrial department mandarins to prepare an action plan to revive all the sick industrial entities after mapping them.

Besides, he stressed upon making ‘serious’ efforts to achieve the revenue collection targets in the month of June. The revenue mop in the months of April and May had dipped sharply owing to the nationwide covid-19 lockdown and consequent shutdown of commercial and industrial activities.

“The CM has directed the infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC) and the state industrial development department to take steps for reviving sick units so that more jobs could be created,” UP additional chief secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi said this evening.

 

In a virtual news conference yesterday, the CM had stressed the industrial and commercial activities were picking up pace in UP and that there was no new tax proposal for additional revenue mop up to overcome the covid-19 challenge. He claimed the tax revenue had already started to show an upward trend now.

On May 6, the state had announced a tax hike on liquor and petroleum products to partly shore up its sagging exchequer. The upward revision of tax on these commodities was expected to spur revenues by Rs 4,420 crore during the current 2020-21 financial year. According to UP finance minister Suresh Khanna, against the tax demand of Rs 12,141 crore in April 2020, the tax month’s collection stood at merely Rs 1,178 crore.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has directed officials to ensure compliance with the social distancing and safety protocols while allowing for the resumption of commercial and industrial activities outside the containment zones.

“The state will intensify patrolling on the highways apart from beefing up security in the parks and around the business and commercial establishments to ensure that the lockdown norms are being followed,” Awasthi informed.

The revenue department has already completed the skills mapping of almost 2.4 million of the total 3 million migrant workers, who returned to UP by trains and buses following the lockdown in March.

He said the proposed Migration Commission will soon be set up to look after the social and job benefits of the workers.

So far, the government has arranged for 1,647 Shramik Special trains to ferry UP workers from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka etc, of which 1,587 trains have already arrived carrying almost 2.2 million labourers. The remaining trains will arrive in the coming days.

The remaining stranded workers had returned to UP either by the state roadways buses from neighbouring states viz. Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand etc or on their own.