BAJURA, JULY 12
The government's Prime Minister's Employment Programme has been effective in Bajura district. The programme implemented in all nine local levels of the district is not only creating employment opportunities but also driving development works ahead.
According to Budhinanda Municipality Mayor Padam Kumar Giri, the programme has been beneficial, especially for returnees from India. "A number of people in the district had returned home from India after losing their jobs due to the pandemic. The programme has been a great help for those people," the mayor said.
Projects under the programme are selected on the basis of necessity of the local levels concerned. Again, persons working for the plans under the programme are selected from among the unemployed and people with poor financial status.
Twenty-four projects were completed in Budhinanda Municipality this fiscal under the employment programme. Employment Coordinator Rama Kumari Shahi said more than 400 persons were employed in projects worth over 21 million rupees.
"While the employment programme during these hard times have provided people work and opportunities to earn money, the project implemented under the programmes have also been effective," said Deputy Mayor Sristi Regmi of Budhinanda Municipality.
Gauri Rawat a local of Budhinanda said the employment programme has discouraged people from leaving home for work.
"Earlier, most of the youths here would go to India for jobs. Ever since the work programme was implemented in the district, youths are working in their own villages, which is a good thing," she said, adding that the trend of people going to India for work would stop altogether if they got work in their own villages.
In Budhinanda Municipality, fences and lavatories at six schools, two irrigation channels, two drinking water projects, 12 trails and two micro hydropower projects have been built under the Prime Minister's Employment Programme.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 13 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
