Bhubaneswar: With a view to ensure the livelihood support to the urban poor, labourers and daily age workers during this lockdown, the Odisha Government on Saturday launched the ‘Urban Wage Employment Initiative’ worth Rs 100 crore.
The programme will generate employment for 4.50 lakh families living in 114 urban local bodies (ULBs) across Odisha. With the cooperation of Mission Shakti groups, the programme will be implemented from this month till September this year, the government said in a statement.
Under the programme, several labour based un-skilled works like sanitization of drains, digging and renovation of water bodies, development of playgrounds and various sports infrastructures, construction of public toilets and beautification of urban areas will be carried out. Besides, local artists will be engaged in wall paintings/murals.
However, these works will be done after maintaining strict social distancing and other COVID19 guidelines. The wages will be deposited directly in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries once in a week.
With only 60 cases, Odisha has so far successful in containing the pandemic. Out of the 60 cases, as many as 21 patients have already recovered and only one co-morbid patient has died so far. So Odisha’s COVID19 recovery rate is 35%, its death rate is only 1.6% which is way better than the national average.