UP to employ migrants reaching home for making 10K km roads under MGNREGA, PMGSY

More than 10,000 kilometer of roads will now be constructed in Uttar Pradesh through the employment that will be given to migrant workers under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).

The roads will be constructed under the under PM Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Officials said, the scheme would be used to provide employment to hundreds of migrants who are in the process of reaching Uttar Pradesh. Around 9 lakh migrants are already on their way back, following the lockdown.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officers to create 50 lakh jobs for migrant workers by the month end. The Rural Development Department has already drafted a plan for construction of 6,000 km of roads, of which more than 3,000 km are proposed to be constructed by Rural Engineering Department (RED), while the rest will be made by the Public Works Department.

A maximum of 42 roads will be built under the PM's flagship scheme in Deoria district, followed by Amroha with 35 new roads. According to official sources, the Rural Development Department is in the process of finalizing the proposal, which will then be sent to the Centre for approval.

Sujit Kumar, chief executive officer, PMGSY, said: "We had planned to lay 17,000 km of roads, but after a review by executive engineers, the department has zeroed in on a blueprint for 10,000 km."

He said that work on the rural road network would begin after the Centre's nod. PMGSY was launched by the centre to provide connectivity to far-flung habitations as part of the poverty-alleviation strategy. The Centre has also been making efforts to set uniform technical and management standards and facilitate development and planning at the state-level to ensure sustainable management of rural road network.

PMGSY guidelines suggest every road project should be part of the core network and keeping connectivity in mind, preference should be given to roads that serve other habitations too. A unit under this programme comprises a habitation, not a revenue village or panchayat. A habitation is a cluster of population, living in an area, the location of which does not change with time.

Preference should be given to constructing roads which serve a larger population.