State ensured employment for all returnee migrants: CM

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that jobs were provided to all migrant labourers who had returned to Bengal after losing them in different states since the first wave of the Covid pandemic.

In reply to a question related to jobs for migrant workers, Banerjee said: "Bengal is a state that looked into the issue with a humane approach and ensured jobs for all migrant labourers when they had returned".

She further said that they were also provided with

free-of-cost ration and their family members have also got benefitted with different state-run schemes.

In this connection Nobel laureate Dr Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, who attended a meeting with the Chief Minister being the member of the Global Advisory Board for Covid Response Policy in West Bengal, said: "Many people from the state go to different states for jobs. It is not possible for any state to individually ensure a vibrant economy for them unless the country's economy revives".

He further said that the Bengal government is trying to extend all necessary support to people at this critical time of Covid including the migrant labourers.

There was a report that the country's GDP would be 12 per cent.

"Now it is being said that it will be 9 per cent. I feel it would be around 6 to 7 per cent if there is no new wave of Covid pandemic," he said.

It needs mention that the Mamata Banerjee government had borne the entire expenditure to engage "Shramik Special" trains to bring back migrant labourers back home safely due to lockdown during the first wave of Covid pandemic.

Following the direction of the Chief Minister, the state Panchayat and Rural Development department had taken a special drive to ensure that all migrant labourers get job cards under MGNREGS. In the 2020-21 fiscal, more than 3.80 lakh migrant workers got new job cards and at least 6.46 lakh migrant labourers were provided with jobs. The reason being the state Panchayat and Rural Development department created 10 crore person days only by providing jobs to migrant labourers during and after the first phase of Covid pandemic, super cyclone Amphan and cyclone Yaas under the MGNREGS. Not even a single death of migrant labourers was reported in the state.