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Digvijay Singh has big plans for MP's poor

The Madhya Pradesh government has finalised an action plan to provide employment to a member each of the poorest two million families in the state.

A meeting of the state cabinet on Friday, presided over by Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, decided to provide minimum employment equivalent to the wages of 180 days per year to one member of the families who are in the no income, no land, no wages and no resources category.

It was decided to implement all the employment generating schemes in such a manner that the target groups benefit from them. For this, district level employment committees would be constituted.

The cabinet gave clear directives that labour-related works under the Employment Assurance Scheme should not be executed by machines. In case machines are used, the chief executive officer of the concerning zila panchayats would be held responsible.

The cabinet also decided to prepare afresh the list of people under the poverty line. Initially, the list would be published and after disposal of objections, it would be given a final shape. It would be ready by March 31.

Identity cards would be issued to persons under the poverty line. The holders of such cards would be eligible to seek employment under the EAS and the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.

The cabinet decided to launch the people's programme for renovating the existing water tanks in all villages. The government would prepare a village resources inventory, in which availability of mines, tanks, government land and other resources would be detailed. Special attention would be given to the promotion of village artisans. Arrangements would also be made for upgrading their skills and making available to them improved tools.

In addition, the state would launch a vocational education programme from the middle school level. The school education and manpower planning departments would draw up an action plan for this.

UNI

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