UP cabinet clears proposal on Workers' Employment Commission for migrants

Nearly 3.5 million migrant workers have returned to UP post-lockdown

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet today cleared the proposal for setting up of a Workers’ Employment Commission, which will be mandated for facilitating jobs to the migrant and other state workers.

Titled UP Kaamgaar Aur Shramik (Sevayojan Evam Rozgaar) Aayog, the statutory entity will have two separate boards at the state and district levels.

The Commission will be headed by chief minister Yogi Adityanath as the chairperson with the industry and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) ministers named as two vice chairpersons.

The decision was taken at the state cabinet meeting chaired by the CM here, UP MSME minister Sidharth Nath Singh said this afternoon. He said the state level board of the Commission will be presided over by the UP infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC). He will be assisted by 14 other members.

Besides, the district level boards will be presided over by the respective district magistrates (DM), and comprise 19 other members.

“The CM has directed the ministers in charge of the districts to review the progress of the district level boards every month, while the DMs will have the responsibility of updating the ministers and the local legislators with the weekly progress reports,” Singh informed.

He said the Commission was the first of its kind being set up in the country and it underlined the priority accorded by the Yogi government towards the welfare of the migrants and state workers and labourers.

“The CM has observed the labourers have minimal access to resources and the government shall take all steps to provide them with gainful employment and protect their interests,” he said adding no other government had so far cared for the labourers like the present dispensation.

Last month, the Adityanath government had announced to set up the Commission in the wake of the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from other states, especially Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and Delhi, following covid-19 lockdown by special trains and roadways buses.

Meanwhile, Singh said the state had completed the skills mapping of 3.5 million workers. “The government is working with a holistic approach of providing jobs to them in different schemes, including one district one product (ODOP), MSME etc. We have already inked the MoUs with four industry chambers and they have started the process of identifying the workers for employment.”

Recently, the CM had tasked officials with generating 10 million jobs for the workers. The employment opportunities will be created in different sectors and schemes viz. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), MSME, dairy, agriculture, self help groups (SHG) etc.

So far, the state has engaged 5.7 million workers in MGNREGA jobs, thus toppling Rajasthan from the top spot in this regard. The government plans to engage a million more workers in MGNREGA projects.