LUCKNOW/BHUBANESWAR: To reach out to the urban poor, severely hit by large scale job-loss due to the coronavirus-enforced nationwide lockdown, the governments of UP and Odisha have announced that they will provide employment under new and old schemes to help the distressed labourers tide over this crisis.Aware of the large-scale migration of workers back to UP villages following the lockdown, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to provide jobs to them under the Mahatama Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).According to principal secretary, rural development , Manoj Singh, the en masse migration of youth to villages has led to a situation of economic distress which can only be solved by providing jobs to them. “Youth seeking jobs under MNREGS will immediately be given job cards. If a youth’s name does not figure in the job card of a family, then it will be added,” he said.Singh said that as per the central government guidelines, works under MNREGS would be conducted outside the Covid-19 containment areas, following strict social distancing norms.Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced a Rs 100 crore Urban Wage Employment Initiative (UWEI) that will aim to provide immediate wages to them by implementing labour-intensive projects.The UWEI assumes significance as the state housing and urban development department has estimated that around one-third of the people living in urban areas of the state (approximately two million) could face severe consequences with reduced working hours, decrease in wages and abrupt layoffs. “The UWEI will benefit around 4.5 lakh urban poor working in the informal sectors in 114 urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state,” said an official statement issued by the chief minister’s office.