By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In its bid to overcome the growing number of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the State, the State Urban Affairs Department is now seriously trying to implement the Swarna Jaayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana in the State.
As per available statistics, the population of BPL is 51271 in the areas confined to Municipal Boards and the State while the total number of household is 9952.
Speaking to reporters here recently, Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that there are components of the Swarna Jaayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana which has a funding pattern of 90 and 10 percent.
According to Lyngdoh, Urban Self Help Programme (USEP) is one of the component and under the programme Government provides assistance to individual urban poor beneficiaries for setting up of gainful employment ventures on micro industries, service and business.
It may be mentioned that the population of BPL under Shillong Municipal Board is 13185 with 2925 households while the population under Tura Boards is 18904 with 3317 households.
The Minister also informed that under the Urban Women Self Help Programme (UWSP) assistance is provided to women for setting up self employment through loan and subsidy.
Under Jowai Municipal Board, the population is 3051 with 550 households and the 5501 population with 1034 households in Williamnagar municipal Boards.
Under the Skill Training for Employment among Urban Poor (Step up) component, assistance is provided for skill promotion of the urban poor for different types of trade to enhance their capacity to undertake self employment.
As per the statistics, the population of BPL in Resubelpara Municipal Board is 6209 in 1198households while the number is 4421 with 928 households in Baghmara board.
She also said that the Government is providing opportunities for wage employment for the un-skilled and semi-skilled by using their labour for construction of socially useful public assets like community centre, storm water drains and footpaths under the Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP), a component of the scheme.
The last component of the scheme is Urban Community Development Network (UCDN) where Government plans to rely on establishing and venturing community organization.