Clarifying its stance, the Ministry said that the government has provided employment to close to 175, 909 through 6,864 projects under the above program for FY 2018-19, across Nepal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
MoLESS Minister Gokarna Bista said that the government was able to create short-term employment opportunities through the program. The projects provided employment for 13 days per person on an average.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe have been able to create employment for such a high number of people in the first year of the implementation of the program after completing over 86 legal processes,\u201d said Bista<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u201cThe issue of employment was never a priority earlier. But, we have been able to create employment opportunities in a massive scale,\u201d he added while promising to meet the target of creating half-million employment opportunities in FY 2019-20.<\/p>\n
The Ministry added that the government has provided NPR 2.36 billion in the form of conditional grants to the local governments to run projects, creating employment for Nepal\u2019s unemployed citizens.<\/p>\n
Each local unit was given NPR 10 million to run these projects.<\/p>\n
However, ministry officials opine that the employment figures could be higher as they have not completed collecting data from all the local units.<\/p>\n
Speaking further about the success of the PMEP, Minister Bista<\/span> said, \u201cThe employment program has not only created employment opportunities and help reduced the government liabilities for unemployment allowance, it is also helping the local units in building community infrastructures.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe program covered projects such as construction of walking trails, irrigation canals, preservation of ponds and heritage sites and road construction and maintenance among others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The government used persons who signed up to the Employment Service Centre in every local unit. According to the Ministry, more than 1.71 million had registered with ECS.<\/p>\n
However, ministry officials admit that they are still reviewing the applications for eligibility.<\/p>\n
As per the Act to Guarantee the Right to Employment 2075, all ECS-enrolled individuals should get employment for up to 100 days in a year. On failure to do so, the government will have to pay 50 percent of the minimum wage as unemployed allowance.<\/p>\n
\nAlso Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Nepal, Mauritius Sign Attractive Labor Agreement, Nepali Labor to Get Equal Pay<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the wake of rising criticism concerning the effectiveness of the Prime Minister Employment Program (PMEP),…<\/span><\/p>\nRead more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":761,"featured_media":21710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10004,3],"tags":[6272,4165,11780,13526],"yoast_head":"\n
Nepal Labor Ministry Defends PM Employment Program Amid Growing Criticism<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n