92,000 people got employment opportunities for a minimum of 16 days From the Prime Minister's Employment Program
In the current fiscal year 2077/78, a total of 92,659 people has been employed through the Prime Minister's Employment Program (EMEP). In the current fiscal year, the national target is to provide employment to two lakh people for a minimum of 100 days. In the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, they have got an average of 16 days of employment.
The Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security is confident that the government's national target of providing employment to at least 200,000 people in the current fiscal year will be reached. Suman Ghimire, National Program Director and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labor's Prime Minister's Employment Program, said that the target could not be reached numerically even if the target was not met.
He said that work is still going on in the rural areas even though the second wave of the corona epidemic has affected the city-centric municipalities. He urged the hill municipalities that have not been affected by Corona to operate the projects under this program by following the health security prescribed by the government.
He said, "Operate the program by following the health standards. We will start the process of immediate payment based on the completed project."
According to the ministry, out of the Rs. 10.34 billion allocated for the operation of the program for the current fiscal year, a total of Rs. 8.14 billion was entered for the project. Of which, 816.71 million has been spent on wages so far. Details of other expenses are being collected, the ministry said.
Representatives of the local government say that there is a problem in providing employment by planning according to the procedure as the government has made the procedure cumbersome. It is said that the operation of the Prime Minister's Employment Program has been delayed this year as the local level is confused in the prioritization of the project.
Most of the money sent by the federal government has to be spent only on workers' wages and only a small percentage of the project money can be used to buy construction materials. Due to this, some local governments have not been able to reserve this program.
According to the local representatives, the workers themselves have not been attracted to the Prime Minister's Employment Program due to the low wages of the workers.
Homnarayan Shrestha, national president of the RuralMek Association, said that there was a problem in operating the project as specified due to the strict selection and operation of the project.
The government has said it has tightened its procedures following criticism of the PM's employment program. The Community Project Operation Procedure-2077 BS based on remuneration for work has given the responsibility of prioritizing the projects to the listed unemployed to the local level.
The budget released by the ministry does not seem to be spent at the local level. According to the ministry, an additional amount of Rs 7.35 billion has been distributed to the local level in two phases.
According to the ministry, out of 743 local level PM employment programs, 10 local levels have not been able to start the program. Since the outbreak of the Corona epidemic in mid-April, most of the municipalities operating under the program have had to close down.
