A day after attacking the Central government for showing a narrow political attitude in not including Chhattisgarh in the much touted Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan (GKRA), Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking inclusion of the state in the livelihood campaign.
The GKRA—aimed at providing livelihood opportunities for migrant workers who have returned to home states during the COVID-19 induced lockdown—was launched for 116 districts of six most affected states. They include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Jharkhand.
Interestingly, with a huge chunk of migrant labourers and situated in neighbourhood of other included states such as MP, Odisha and Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh was left out.
After the launch of the campaign—that is run in mission mode for 125 days—on Saturday, CM Baghel had taken to micro-blogging social media site Twitter to lash out at the BJP-led Central government.
“Not including even a single district of Chhattisgarh in the PM Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan shows the narrow minded political attitude of the central government towards the federal structure of the country. Chhattisgarh has given 9 out of 11 members of parliament to BJP and yet the state and its citizens were subject to injustice,” Baghel tweeted in Hindi.
On Sunday, he wrote a letter to the prime minister, mentioning that geographically and socio-economically, Chhattisgarh is similar to neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha and yet it was left out of the GKRA.
Baghel said in the letter that daily wagers were the most impacted lot in the lockdown period and migrants returned to home states in large numbers. “Till now five lakh migrant labourers have returned to Chhattisgarh and the process is still on,” he has said.
Baghel further mentioned that three-fourths of the state came under forests and 80 per cent of the population belongs to scheduled tribe and scheduled caste category. About 90 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture. Non-inclusion of the state in GKRA has caused a huge disappointment to the poor, agriculture labourers, migrant labourers and marginal farmers in the state. Given the current situation, making livelihood options available to the migrants who have returned and the labourers in the state was a primary need.
“I request you to include all districts of Chhattisgarh in the GKRA so that labourers can get the opportunity of livelihood according to their skills and interest. I am sure you will take immediate steps in this direction,” Baghel said in the conclusion of the letter.
