UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s promise of 1 crore jobs far-fetched; migrant workers not keen to work in state

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that the state will create history on June 26 when over 1 crore people, a majority of them migrant workers, will be given employment. How and where – no one has the answer because industries say migrant workers are unwilling to work in UP since they are waiting to return to the metro cities once the situation improves.

“It is just an announcement. Take it with a pinch of salt. Earlier the CM had claimed that 35 lakh people were given employment but the industry department has no record. This time the count is 1 crore,” an industrialist told this reporter.

“Iss baar Maharaj ji kuchch jyada bol gaye,” he added, pointing out that such a large volume of people cannot be absorbed even with MGNREGA.

Manish Shukla (43) had worked for 13 years in a garment factory in Surat and had returned to his village Devri in Karchhana block of Allahabad during lockdown. “I was asked to level the village road under MGNREGA. I am not used to it. I will not work but wait for the right time to return to Surat,” he said.

He did get a call from a ‘sahib’ in Noida last week who offered work in a garment factory there. The payment was very low. “I used to get around Rs 30,000 in Surat and here he offered me just Rs 20,000. I refused to work at such a low rate,” Manish said.

Even the office-bearers of Indian Industries Association (IIA), which has signed a MoU with the state government to provide over 3 lakh jobs to migrant workers, admit that migrant workers people are “unwilling” to work in Uttar Pradesh.

Rajeev Bansal, who runs a Noida-based garment manufacturing unit, is one of many local industrialists who offered work to migrant workers, only to be met with refusal. Bansal’s office had contacted Manish Shukla, who refused his offer. “There are many like Manish who do not want to work in UP,” he said.

The Department of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has skill mapped the migrant workers and provided a list of 8 lakh workers to the IIA. The list is exhaustive and divided according to districts; it also carries the telephone numbers of the workers.

IIA general secretary Manmohan Agarwal said that they have passed on the list to members across the state. “The report we are getting is not encouraging. The migrant labourers are not willing to work in UP and want to return to the state from where they have come,” he said.

Another entrepreneur Atul Bhushan Gupta, who manufactures and repairs transformers and has a factory in Meerut, contacted migrant workers in western UP, but a majority of them refused to take jobs in UP.

In such a scenario, the UP CM’s claim looks far- fetched. The mega show in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will officially launch ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Yojana’ is bound to get some headlines as the PM is also likely to interact with the workers and craftsmen to enquire about their experience and the help given by the state government during their return to UP from other states.

Workers of six districts mainly from Gorakhpur, Jalaun, Meerut, Sant Kabir Nagar, Bahraich and Varanasi, including several women, have been selected to interact with the PM virtually.

Official admit that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) will be a major contributor to employment since nearly 50 per cent of total jobs being created in Uttar Pradesh are under this scheme. Jobs in industries will be at least 2 per cent of the total employment and the rest will be absorbed in MGNREGA.

UP has about 1.80 crore MGNREGA job card holders and out of them 85 lakh have been active. Construction of rural roads, digging of ponds and pits for plantation drives and other such work is being carried out under the rural job scheme to provide work to people.

Official said that the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) will give employment to one lakh labourers belonging to the state at various real estate projects.