New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a new scheme “Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan” on Saturday, starting from Bihar. He said that the scheme is a major tool to fulfill the needs of migrant workers and labourers. Speaking on the occasion of launching Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan, Modi said that my laborer friends, today is a historic day, this welfare and livelihood of the poor has been started through this scheme.

The country understands your emotions and needs, this scheme is a tool to fulfill this need and emotion, he said. “Migrants will be provided jobs near their homes. So far, you were using your talents for progress of cities. Now you will help in developing your villages and neighbourhoods,” he said, adding the scheme had been “inspired by migrants”.

The programme seeks to create infrastructure worth Rs 50,000 crore through public works that support job creation in the rural parts of the country. Crucially though, this does not represent fresh expenditure on the government’s part. The ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan’ will run for 125 days in 116 districts across six states – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Rajasthan. Each district has around 25,000 labourers returning home after being left unemployed by the Covid-19 lockdown.

           The union minister for rural development Narendra Singh Tomar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar, Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan and Ashok Gehlot attended the scheme launching. During the event, the prime minister also spoke to migrant workers from different parts of the country to ask them about difficulties they faced during the lockdown.