November 16: The Prime Minister's Employment Programme is becoming more and more ineffective. Almost four months have passed since the start of the current fiscal year (FY) 2080/81, but not even one thousand people have been employed under the programme.

The government had claimed that many people would be employed annually under this programme. More than 885,000 unemployed people have been registered under the employment programme in the hope of getting jobs. But so far this year, only 803 people have been employed.

The programme was launched to employ citizens between the age group of 18 to 59 years who have not been employed for at least 100 days. If these people do not get employment, the government has been saying that it will provide a subsistence allowance equal to 50 days' wages.

However, if we look at the employment situation provided by the government so far in the current fiscal year, this programme seems to have become more and more weak.

For the current fiscal year, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 5.94 billion for the Prime Minister's Employment Programme. According to the Secretariat of the Prime Minister's Employment Programme, a committee was recently formed for restructuring the programme, but it has not yet started its work in concrete form. According to Shobha Pokharel, the deputy secretary of the secretariat of the programme, the restructuring process will proceed as announced in the budget this year. "In the current fiscal year, the budget has been released for the projects as per the announcement made earlier. It is difficult to restructure the projects this year," she said.

While presenting the previous fiscal year’s policies and programmes in the Parliament, the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari had announced that the programme would be restructured so that all levels would own it. The restructuring of the programme has not been done.

According to Deputy Secretary Pokharel, the procedures and laws may have to be amended for restructuring the programme. She said that the necessary arrangements will be made and the programme will be restructured from next year based on the recommendations given by the committee.

At present, the budget has been released to the local level as per the selected projects for the Prime Minister's Employment Programme. A total of 738 local levels have registered the unemployment list for the current fiscal year, while the number of local levels that have implemented the project so far is only 134.

Under the Prime Minister's Employment Programme launched by the government led by KP Sharma Oli in the year 2075/76, billions of rupees have been spent for small jobs. On the very year the programme was launched, the government was accused of exploiting billions of rupees from the state coffers in unproductive areas. The same year, the government was heavily criticized for spending billions of rupees in unproductive areas like chasing monkeys, uprooting weeds, and driving cattle away among others.

As of last year, this programme has failed to create long-term employment. As the government has already allocated Rs 38.76 billion under this programme in the last five years, questions are being raised about its effectiveness and achievement.

In the initial year (FY 2075/76), the government allocated a budget of Rs 3.10 billion for this program. Rs 5.1 billion was allocated in the year 2076/77.

In the year 2077/78, Rs 11.6 billion was allocated and Rs 12 billion in 2078/79. For the year 2079/80, the government allocated a budget of Rs 7.5 billion. It seems that the allocated budget is mostly spent every year but the achievement is zero. The Auditor General's report has repeatedly raised questions about the expenses incurred through the Prime Minister's Employment Programme.