Over 8L MGNREGA job card holders employed under ‘Karmashree’ proj
Kolkata: Following the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, more than 8 lakh job card holders have been guaranteed work under the state government’s ‘Karmashree’ project.
The labourers are being utilised in several ways for carrying out ‘Jal Sapna’ scheme.
The Public Health Engineering (PHE) department has been executing the scheme as a part of the Central government sponsored ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ project to ensure piped drinking water.
The department has already set a target of reaching piped drinking water supply to every household in the state by April 2025.
The CM had earlier directed the PHE department to induct the job card holders who were not guaranteed 100-day works by the Centre in the ‘Jal Sapna’ scheme so that they get a job. Banerjee had earlier alleged that those labourers who had worked under the MGNREGA did not receive their dues as the Central government had stopped providing funds to the state government under the MGNREGA. To compensate these labourers, the Mamata Banerjee government started its own scheme ‘Karmashree’, thereby giving job opportunities to the job card holders. According to state government sources, 5,02,71,798 man-days have been created in the state. Following the instruction from the CM, migrant labourers who returned to the state have also been inducted under ‘Karmashree’ scheme. About 54,000 migrant labourers have received jobs here in the state, sources said. Job card holders have received jobs for 61 days on an average basis.
The state government has paid total wages of more than Rs 1,459 crore.
The Chief Minister on Monday said that her government has served show cause notice to 373 organisations and as many as 112 contracts have been cancelled after carrying out an enquiry into more than 11,000 complaints which were essentially related to the non-supply of drinking water.
About 23 government officials had also been served show cause notice for not doing their work and 500 FIRs were registered in connection with the incidents where drinking water could not be supplied due to several faults, Banerjee had pointed out.
