UP loosens Covid Care Fund purse strings for cash support to migrants

CM Adityanath transfers money to accounts of 1.05 million migrant families

Amid the influx of nearly 3.5 million migrants following covid-19 lockdown, the Uttar Pradesh government has loosened the purse strings of UP Covid Care Fund to provide cash support to such workers.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath today transferred Rs 1,000 each to the bank accounts of almost 1.05 million migrant families, totalling roughly Rs 105 crore in the relief amount.

UP additional chief secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi said Covid Care Fund was used to provide the monetary support to the state migrant workers.

“The revenue department has been asked to collect the bank details of another million migrant workers, so that they could also be provided with the relief amount,” he informed here this evening.

He noted the state government had achieved a big feat in simultaneously transferring the Rs 1,000 cash support to more than a million migrant households.

UP Covid Care Fund was instituted in April 2020, in addition to the existing UP Chief Minister Distress Relief Fund, to expend on medical equipment, testing kits, hospital infrastructure, tele medicine, health education, personal protection equipment (PPE), masks, covid-19 relief works etc. In fact, the CM had also appealed to the legislators to contribute generously to the Fund, while also exhorting for contributions from the public and the private sector under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Earlier, the Adityanath government had already provided cash handout of Rs 1,000 each to nearly 3.36 million daily wagers and poor people, totalling Rs 336 crore in relief, who had lost their livelihood after lockdown was imposed in March 2020.

This included 1.79 million construction labourers, 881,000 urban labourers and 659,000 destitute in the rural areas of the state.

With the initiation of relief transfers to the migrant workers as well, the total number of beneficiary in UP is expected to exceed 5 million with over 4.3 million families already covered.

So far, about 1,644 Shramik Special trains had evacuated UP origin workers from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Delhi, West Bengal etc. Besides, the migrant workers also returned by the roadways buses from neighbouring states viz. Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand etc or by other vehicles on their own.

Now, the government is arranging for 200 trains to ferry workers employed in the state brick kilns to their native states in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.

Meanwhile, presiding over a review meeting, the CM has directed officials to speed up expressway and highway projects to provide employment to the migrant workers. The expressway projects underway include Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway.

“The process of the skills mapping of the migrants workers is underway and the respective district administrations have collated their data,” Awasthi added. This database will be shared with the industry and employment exchanges to provide them with jobs.

Earlier, the Adityanath government had already provided cash handout of Rs 1,000 each to nearly 3.36 million daily wagers and poor people, totalling Rs 336 crore in relief, who had lost their livelihood after lockdown was imposed in March 2020.

This included 1.79 million construction labourers, 881,000 urban labourers and 659,000 destitute in the rural areas of the state.

With the initiation of relief transfers to the migrant workers as well, the total number of beneficiary in UP is expected to exceed 5 million with over 4.3 million families already covered.

So far, about 1,644 Shramik Special trains had evacuated UP origin workers from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Delhi, West Bengal etc. Besides, the migrant workers also returned by the roadways buses from neighbouring states viz. Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand etc or by other vehicles on their own.

Now, the government is arranging for 200 trains to ferry workers employed in the state brick kilns to their native states in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.

Meanwhile, presiding over a review meeting, the CM has directed officials to speed up expressway and highway projects to provide employment to the migrant workers. The expressway projects underway include Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway.

“The process of the skills mapping of the migrants workers is underway and the respective district administrations have collated their data,” Awasthi added. This database will be shared with the industry and employment exchanges to provide them with jobs.