As the country battles the second wave of coronavirus, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has focused on maintaining continuity of employment for people of the state, both in cities and villages. The government has directed the authorities concerned to provide speedy approval to investment proposals to create job avenues for the urban population while offering jobs under MNREGA and other schemes to the rural population to avert large-scale unemployment, which was witnessed last year.
The state government has decided to set up a number of industrial and IT parks to create job opportunities for the youth on a massive scale. Decks have been cleared for the setting up of industrial parks in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Agra, Moradabad and Azamgarh. Lands have already been identified for the parks in these districts so that willing investors could get land at reasonable rates. Apart from this, the government will start building IT parks in Bareilly, Lucknow, Aligarh and Saharanpur from next month. An IT park will provide employment for at least 5,000 youths.
An official communiqué released on Saturday confirmed that government officials were in constant touch with investors to get the IT parks project off the ground as soon as possible with the main objective to create job avenues for the masses amid the pandemic. The proposed IT Park in Lucknow will be built on the land of UPDPL near Amausi airport.
Besides, the state government is trying to ensure continuous supply of raw materials to small industries so that their production did not get interrupted and authorities have been directed to ensure smooth functioning of industries to avoid shutting down of units leading to unemployment.
Even during Corona curfew, the production and supply of essential commodities continues uninterrupted. Efforts are underway to increase production of medicines, sanitisers, medical devices as well as food items, bread, biscuits, flour, rice, lentils, edible oil, sugar, drinking water, milk and other essential products during this period of crisis. Orders have also been given to increase the capacity of various kinds of industries, including those producing fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, plants, detergents and soaps, solvent extraction, food processing units, etc.
Meanwhile, providing employment to the rural population under MGNREGA and other schemes will start gaining momentum after the announcement of results of Panchayat elections. Officials said that once the new office-bearers of Panchayats were announced, works under schemes will resume triggering demand for work among the rural population. Preparations have already started to get more and more work under MGNREGA for the locals. Plans have been chalked out to provide work to villagers under water harvesting schemes through digging and deepening of ponds, wells and lakes as well as widening of rivers.