April 28: The Ministry of Labour and Employment has written to the Ministry of Finance to provide double amount for the Prime Minister Employment Programme for the upcoming fiscal year than the amount allocated for the current fiscal year.
The labour ministry has demanded Rs 11.28 billion from the finance ministry to run the 100-day employment programme for unemployed youths in FY 2020/21.
In the letter, the ministry has asked the finance ministry to provide Rs 5.91 billion pledged by the World Bank and to manage an additional Rs 5.37 billion from the government’s internal source. However, the ministry is yet to determine how many youths will be provided with employment opportunities during next fiscal year. The labour ministry is currently studying the prospects, said sources at the ministry.
The government has announced to provide employment to youths who have been rendered jobless due to the lockdown as well as to the migrant workers who have received permit to work abroad but have been denied opportunity due to the travel restrictions. Therefore, the labour ministry intends to create employment opportunities within the country to minimize the impact created by jobless situation in the country.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment aims to mobilize unemployed youths in road, drinking water, agriculture and irrigation projects as well as construction and renovation of government hospitals, health posts among others.
The programme was launched last year. The government had allocated Rs 5.1 billion for this programme in the current fiscal year. However, the government has not been able to spend the allocated amount for any productive work except paying salary and allowances of the employees as of mid-April this year.
The World Bank was supposed to provide Rs 2 billion for the programme for the current fiscal year but the amount was withheld as the government failed to prepare a work procedure for the programme. The World Bank has agreed to release the budget for the upcoming fiscal year after the government prepared the work procedure recently.
