Kerala govt's new 100-day programme aims at more workdays in construction, farm sectors

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday announced the State government's second 100-day action plan to help tide over the economic slowdown triggered by the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chief Minister said the plan would be generating more workdays based on the activities, including construction and agriculture, to provide more jobs and hand over 20,000 houses for the poor that were built under the government's Life Mission project, among other things, and would be implemented between February 10 and May 20.

May 20 marks one year of the Left government came to power.

''The 100-day programme from February 10 to May 20 includes a total of 1,557 projects and an allocation of Rs 17,183.89 crore,'' Vijayan told reporters here.

He said as part of the programme, the Electricity Department is expected to create 5,87,000 workdays, Water Resources Department 3,91,282 and Local Self-Government Department 7,73,669 workdays.

As these are construction workdays, a portion of this would be available to guest workers as well, the Chief Minister said. Vijayan said in addition to the number of working days based on construction work, 4,64,714 direct and indirect jobs would be created. Of this, the Department of Agriculture aims to create 112,000 direct jobs, 56,500 indirect jobs and the Forest Department aims to create 93,750 jobs through the Community Afforestation Programme, Vijayan said.

He said 20,000 individual homes and three housing complexes constructed under the Life Mission project would be inaugurated at this stage.

During these 100 days, free internet connection would be provided to 100 BPL families in every Assembly constituency under the government's public-centric project K-FON for providing high-speed internet for free to the poor and at affordable rates to others, Vijayan said.

The Chief Minister said the first 100-day programme held from June 11 to September 19, 2021, was successful.

He said the previous government headed by him had twice announced 100-day programmes and implemented them in a timely manner. He claimed that the previous programmes have made significant strides in the areas of social, infrastructure and employment.

The Chief Minister briefed reporters about his recent UAE visit and said various groups have offered investment worth over Rs 300 crore.

Speaking on the third wave of the COVID-19, the Chief Minister said in the first week of January, there was a 45 per cent increase in infection and in the third week it went up to 215 per cent. ''At present the increase is only minus 39 per cent. Cases are no longer likely to increase significantly. But, everyone should be vigilant,'' he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)