The Uttar Pradesh government has started a week-long drive from Tuesday to recruit building construction workers for Israel.

“It is an opportunity for our workers to work in another country. They will get over Rs 1.30 lakh per month as salary besides other benefits. We want a large number of people of the state to grab this chance to earn better,” state labour minister Anil Rajbhar said.

The minority cell of the Uttar Pradesh Congress has written to governor Anandiben Patel, demanding an immediate halt to the recruitment drive because “it is a bad practice to provide manpower to a country which is at war with another country”.

“It is also a proof that India is unable to provide employment to its poor people and luring them to go to a country which is engulfed in strife,” said Shahnawaz Alam, a leader of the minority cell.

The Israeli construction companies had asked its government to allow them to hire about one lakh Indian workers to replace the 90,000 Palestinians whose work permits had been cancelled since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Rajbhar said candidates turned up in large numbers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The skills of 629 shortlisted workers from Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow were
tested on Tuesday and 585 workers from Banda and Azamgarh districts on Wednesday at the Industrial Training Institute in Aliganj, the minister said.

On Thursday, 563 workers from Devipatan, Bareilly, Jhansi, Moradabad and Noida will be interviewed. On Friday, 565 workers from Varanasi, Mirzapur, Meerut and Ghaziabad will be evaluated. A total of 877 applicants from Gorakhpur and 739 from Ayodhya and Saharanpur will be interviewed on January 29. On January 30, 603 aspirants of Aligarh, Basti and Prayagraj are to be tested.

Rajbhar said it was a central scheme executed through the National Skill Development Corporation and the Uttar Pradesh government had decided to send 10,000 workers, mostly masons, carpenters and iron welders, to Israel.