As the registration deadline for the Prime Minister Employment Programme ended on Tuesday, the government is planning to provide a minimum 30 days of wage-employment to the registered people.

The government had earlier extended the registration period for the programme launched with the objective of providing a minimum 100 days of work to the unemployed people in a year.

However, as the scheme implementation got delayed and the registration process had to be extended, providing 100-days of paid works to all the registered people in this fiscal year is not possible.

“If started immediately, a lot can happen in the given 30 days as well. They can repair playground or schools, do plantation, work for dam and canal building,”Prakash Dahal, the programme chief and joint secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, told the Post.

The ministry has claimed that the programme received an incredible response from the people. In some local units, Dahal said, nearly 14,000 people have registered for the programme.

Although the deadline for registration has stopped, it will take time to gather details on enrolled people, investigate their employment status and get the number of the unemployed population in the country.

“We cannot say exactly how many people have registered and how many of them are unemployed. It will take a minimum one week to come up with the details,” Dahal said.

The government has approved Rs 2.36 billion for the implementation of the scheme. With that amount distributed among all the 753 local units, the government estimates to provide a minimum 30 days of work to registered people in their respective places.

According to Dahal, a minimum amount of R300,000 to maximum Rs10 million has been sent to all the local units for implementation of the scheme. The amount for each local unit has been distributed after calculating three factors—number of households with poverty, the total population of the local unit, and its remoteness.

 “With this amount and a daily wage of Rs517, a minimum of 30 days of work can be given to the registered people,” Dahal said. “Even the local units with the minimum budget can provide wage-employment to 200-250 workers if we set a 30-day work target and keep 10 percent expenditure on administrative affairs.”  

The total value of the project selected under the employment programme should not be more than Rs500,000, whereas a minimum of 70 percent of the project value should be spent on the remuneration of the workers.

As per its nature and necessity, the project work will be broken down into various phases and different groups of workers will be mobilised to complete the project.  

Each group will be headed by a team leader who will be responsible for daily attendance and maintain records for submitting the details to the Employment Information Centre which is set up in all 753 local units.

The enrolled people must be mobilised for the development projects being carried out in local units. The government has enlisted 13 probable sectors where the unemployed would get work.

“The local units can mobilise the registered workers in their own infrastructure development related projects like drinking water, irrigation and road, among others. If not, they can also employ them in sectors the government has prescribed,” Dahal said.