Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Govt to provide unemployment allowance to jobless


Kathmandu, Feb. 11: The government is announcing the 'Prime Minister Employment Programme' (PMEP) on February 13. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will inaugurate the ambitious programme to provide employment to all citizens of 18 to 59 years of age in the country for at least 100 days in a year.


The PMEP aims at improving life standards of Nepali people through the guarantee of employment, increasing job opportunities and promoting social security, said Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista at a press meet organised at his office to announce the programme.

"The government will create tens of thousands additional employment this fiscal year," he said. 


He said that the programme will promote the use of local labour-intensive technology in small public infrastructure, conduct skill development training as per market demand, provide employment information and consultation, promote public-private partnership and increase collaboration and coordination among the concerned government agencies. 


"Employment generation is a complex process, but we need a large number of jobs. Shortage of jobs in the country has forced the young people to leave the country in search of work abroad," Minister Bista said. 


"Youth are leaving the country to find a job in foreign countries while many projects are not getting skilled human resources. This gap of demand supply is worrisome," he added. 


He said that programme will also work to enhance the capacity of the employer and productivity of the workers as well. 


The prime objective of the programme is to provide job to every citizen not to distribute unemployment allowance, said Minister Bista. 


Joint Secretary at the Ministry Prakash Dahal, who coordinates the programme, said that the unemployment allowance would be provided to a member of a family that has no member employed for the minimum 100 days. 


"Such allowance will be deposited in the bank account of the member through the District Treasury Controller Office. Respective local government must recommend for such allowance and other family members should also provide the agreement for the allowance," he said. 


Families that have their members in foreign employment will not be entitled to the allowance. However, families that have annual income below the government set ceiling can apply for it.

The allowance amount will be equal to the 50 per cent wages of 100 days unemployment. 


The potential areas of employment generation identified by the PMEF are agriculture, cooperatives and animal development, energy, irrigation and river control, water supply and sanitation, forest and environment, tourism promotion, roads and transport, education and sports, reconstruction, community infrastructure development, large and national pride projects, information and communication technology, industry and health. 


The ministry is at the final stage to select Employment Coordinator for all 753 local units across the country. They will take charge after a month, 15 March. They maintain the profiles of the unemployed individual, collect applications from them and make the registration. The ministry received about 23,968 applications for the post of Employment Coordinator.


In order to get the job, unemployed individual should fill up a form submit it to their respective ward office. The ward office will collect the forms and send them to the Employment Service Centre at the local bodies which will submit it to the municipality or rural municipality for the decision. 


After getting approval from the local government, the Centre will list the unemployed people in the Employment Management Information System. Likewise, the employment projects will demand their required workers to the centre and the latter will send them to the field.  

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 12 February 2019. 

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