Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has come down heavily on the critics of his government as it claimed that 26,62,960 people have been provided employment in the last eight months amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The state government says that an action plan was prepared under the Aatmanirbhar’ package on the instructions of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and 26,62,960 people have been employed in 6,65,740 new units.

Apart from this, 5,25,978 people have been provided employment through the ‘Employment portal’ created on the instructions of CM Adityanath.

Yogi Adityanath initiated efforts to provide employment to the poor migrant workers who had become jobless during the Covid-induced lockdown and due to such efforts, lakhs of migrant workers got employment in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, said the sources.

During the corona pandemic, the UP government helped in generating employment by giving a loan of Rs 1,092 crore to 4,24,283 units set up previously under the Aatmanirbhar package. Apart from this, the Chief Minister also started the ‘Employment portal’ through which nearly 5,25,978 people got jobs till December 13 this year.

With the implementation of the lockdown, heavy industries were shut down and the workers employed in these industries started migrating. During this period, consultations were held with the owners of the Small, Medium and Micro-industries and the government arranged raw materials for these industries.

Arrangements were made for the workers to remain in the small-scale industries. As a result, by the second phase of the lockdown, nearly 4,000 small scale industrial units were started in the state.

In the third phase of the lockdown, plans were made to further expand the small-scale industries.

According to the data released by the MSME department, 6,65,740 new units were started in the state in the last eight months, in which 26,62,960 people have been provided employment. Of these, there are 2,57,348 migrant workers who have been provided employment in the units which were already operating in the state.