Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced a Rs 100-crore “urban wage employment initiative programme” that aims to provide relief to the lockdown-hit, livelihood-deprived urban poor. Several labour-intensive projects, such as sanitation drives, will be undertaken in urban areas under this initiative to provide employment opportunities to the poor. A minister described the programme as a sort of urban counterpart to the rural job scheme. “For the rural poor, work is available under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. But there is no scheme at present for the urban poor, who are mostly labourers,” minister Jena said.

Source: The Telegraph April 18, 2020 22:07 UTC