Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sanction unemployment allowance for rural job scheme workers, who have been badly hit by the 21-day nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
Stating that 36,10,797 active workers in Odisha have been deprived of getting work under MGNREGA, he said,” An amount of Rs. 380.39 crore, which is one fourth of the wage rate as per the MGNREG Act, may be sanctioned as unemployment allowance to protect their livelihood.”
This will certainly help them to mitigate their sufferings during this lockdown period, as the State is not in a position to give them work, the CM said.
“I would, therefore, request you to kindly consider the above proposal and allow the State to use the MGNREGA fund and release the unemployment allowance to the account of the MGNREGA active workers of Odisha,” he added.
