Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has directed the deputy commissioners of the districts to do a “livelihood mapping” of all the 15 workers rescued from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand so that they can find work in their home state.

Soren interacted with the workers, who visited his residence after flying to Ranchi from Delhi late on Friday evening. “The deputy commissioners of the districts will be conducting a survey and complete livelihood mapping of the workers so that they do not have to leave their families and go for work in other states and are employed in their home district itself,” he said.

“The chief minister has instructed the deputy commissioners to link all the workers with the various welfare schemes being executed by the state and central governments. There is a plan to link them with schemes worth over Rs 1 crore,” said an official in the chief minister’s office.

The rescued workers from Uttarakhand with Soren at Ranchi on Friday evening. Manob Chowdhury

The chief minister has also instructed the officials to bring the workers and their families under the Abua Awas Yojana — a three-room housing scheme of the state government for the rural homeless — ensure pension for their parents, give the workers Ayushman cards, and also enrol them under the health insurance scheme, agricultural machinery and chief minister employment generation scheme, MGNREGA, chief minister livestock scheme, animal shed scheme and the Gram Gaadi scheme.

“The chief minister has said he will personally monitor the workers’ employment and their linking with welfare schemes of the government and would not tolerate any laxity on this front,” the official in the chief minister’s secretariat said.

State labour department secretary Rajesh Sharma confirmed that directives have been issued to the deputy commissioners to conduct the survey and livelihood mapping of all the rescued workers.

Rajendra Bedia, one of the workers rescued from Uttarakhand’s Silkyara tunnel, with his family upon his return to his home in Ranchi district on Saturday. PTI picture

“The deputy commissioners have been asked to complete the survey and the livelihood mapping at the earliest by sending a team of senior officials to the homes of the workers, most of which are located in remote villages,” Sharma said.

East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri said teams would be sent to all the workers in the district.

He said Bhaktu Murmu, a worker in a remote village of the Dumaria block of East Singhbhum whose father died a few hours before their rescue, and Tinku Sardar, whose father Bonu Sardar is suffering from cancer, would receive visits by teams from the district administration.

“The team would also have health officials. Apart from linking them with welfare schemes and looking after their livelihood, we would also look at the health condition of their elderly parents and arrange for their treatment in advanced hospitals in Jamshedpur,” Bhajantri said.

A three-member team from Jharkhand had been sent to Uttarakhand the very next day of the mishap on November 13 to monitor the condition of the workers and inform the government.