Now, 120-day employment in urban areas guaranteed

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 16

The Urban Development Department notified the Mukhya Mantri Shahri Ajeevika Guarantee Yojana approved by the Cabinet to deal with huge job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. The main objective of the scheme is to provide livelihood security to urban households, along with skill enhancement.

A significant feature of the scheme is that in case the government fails to provide jobs even 15 days after registration, an unemployment allowance of Rs 75 per day will be provided.

“In view of the economic lockdown, there has been huge job losses, so we have tried to bring about an improved and simplified version of MNREGA,” said Rajnish, Secretary, Urban Development and Town and Country Planning. He added that the job prospects of those already working could also be adversely impacted with a large number of those employed in other states returning home.

The scheme will be implemented in all 54 urban local bodies and cantonment boards from the date of issuance of notification till March 31, 2021. All adult members of a household, who apply under the scheme, will be eligible to work, with the upper age limit for employment being fixed at 65 years; the urban local bodies will not employ anyone.

All eligible beneficiaries of a household will be registered through a single application, which can also be filed online. The job card will be issued within seven days of the registration on a specified portal. The wages, as specified by the state government, will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries within seven days of the work being done.

The eligible beneficiaries will be employed in new and ongoing works, projects under the 15th Finance Commission and the Fifth State Finance Commission and sanitation works under the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Also, the eligible beneficiaries, who will be imparted skill training, will also be linked to banks, in case they wish to start their own enterprises.

98 pc MSMEs to benefit: CM

The economic incentive of Rs 50,000 crore, announced by the Centre for MSMEs, will benefit more than 98 per cent of the 55,000 units in the state, said Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.

Presiding over a meeting with the administrative secretaries, Thakur said Rs 10,000 crore had been formalised for micro food enterprises and 2 lakh such enterprises would be assisted by adopting cluster-based approach. It would help farmers growing peas, traditional millets, ginger, garlic, pulses, turmeric, red rice.

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