The Katsina State Government has pledged to ensure the welfare of corps members posted to the state, especially in the area of monthly allowance and accomodation.
The state’s Head of Service, Alhaji Falalu Bawale, said this when he received the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) Coordinator, Alhaji Sa’idu Ibrahim on a courtesy visit in Katsina.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the state government was initially paying corps members in the state monthly allowance, but had since stopped.
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The Head of Service promised to do everything within his office to support the scheme in the state to achieve its set objectives.
According to him, I will call for a meeting with the Commissioner for Youth, and that of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to discuss the issue of lodges for corps members in all the local government areas.
“On the payment of state allowances , I promise to take it up with the committee set up for the purpose, in order to know why they stopped paying in the first place.
“Corps members are regarded as workers in the state, and all workers are under my office, so they are also under my office.
“Therefore, I must see to their welfare and comfort where ever they are working in the state,” he said.
Bawale further disclosed that in no distant time the NYSC would receive a supply of mattresses and plastic chairs, adding that it is long overdue.
Earlier, the new NYSC Coordinator, Sa’idu Ibrahim, informed Bawale that corps members deployed to the state were no longer comfortable because many of them can not afford a moderate accommodation for themselves.
According to him, in the orientation camp, the mattresses that were bought by the previous government are no longer in good shape and need to be changed.
Ibrahim also lamented that most of the lodges built for corps members in the various local government areas long ago by the state government had been reallocated to other establishments.
He.said that the few once that remain6 were in dare need of total renovation.
“At the same time, the state allowances in lue of accommodation and transport was not being paid,” he said.
He also reported that the transit camp for the corps members in the state capital is dilapidated and requires total renovation.
The Coordinator said that the Federal Government was playing its role but the statutory responsibilities of the state government needed more attention.
