UP Govt to Provide Maintenance Allowance to Over 1 Crore Labourers Due to Covid Pandemic

With an intent to provide relief to the poor suffering due to the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will on Monday provide a ‘maintenance allowance’ to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore to 1.50 crore labourers and construction workers.

Working with the mantra of saving both ‘lives and livelihood’, the Uttar Pradesh government will provide a two-month allowance of Rs 1,000 to each such worker to tide over the economic crisis during the pandemic. The total number of registered workers in the state is 5,09,08,745. Of these, the number of unorganized workers registered on the e-SHRAM portal is 3,81,60,725 and the total number of workers registered under the BOCW board is 1,27,48,020.

In the first phase, maintenance allowance will be sent to the bank accounts of a total of two crore workers. The Yogi government has also distributed maintenance allowance to small shopkeepers, daily wage labourers, rickshaw/e-rickshaw pullers, porters, barbers, washermen, cobblers, and confectioners, etc.

Since the second wave of Covid-19 was considerably more contagious than the first, it caused more devastation. The section of the society, such as small shopkeepers, daily wage labourers, rickshaw/e-rickshaw pullers, porters, barbers, washermen, cobblers, confectioners, handcraft drivers, construction workers, fruit and vegetable vendors, whose family’s livelihood depended on the daily income of its head, remained most affected by the pandemic.

Apart from ensuring facilities such as free Covid-19 vaccines, free testing and free treatment for coronavirus, the government also ensured the provision of other basic amenities to the poor.

The workers in the organized sector were provided maintenance allowance twice and workers in the unorganized sector once. Along with this, the ration was made available twice a month, once through the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana and through the Public Distribution System, eliminating the ration card obligation.

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