New Delhi, Nov 12 (IANS): The Centre will allocate an additional amount of Rs 10,000 crore for the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana in a bid to boost rural employment amid the pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.

The scheme, which includes various employment generating schemes including the MGNREGs, PMGSY among others, is in progress in 116 districts and Rs 37,543 crore has been spent till date as per government data.

The Centre had provided Rs 61,500 crore for MGNREGS in the budget for 2020-21. An amount of Rs 40,000 crore was additionally provided in 'Atmanirbhar Bharat 1.0'.

As on date, Rs 73,504 crore has been released under the MGNREGS and 251 crore person-days of employment have been generated as per the Finance Ministry.

Announcing another major scheme for creating new employment in the formal sector, Sitharaman said the government would come up with 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana' to incentivise creation of new employment opportunities during the Covid-recovery phase.

The employment scheme, effective from October 1, will be applicable to eligible new employees joining the EPFO-registered establishments and for those who exited these concerns during the Covid pandemic (March 1-September 30, 2020) and were drawing monthly wages of less than Rs 15,000.