Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Tripura given Rs 813 cr for NREGA

AGARTALA, May 31 – Impressed by the successful implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) last year, the Congress-led UPA Government has allocated Rs 813.53 crore to Left-ruled Tripura for the current financial year (2009-2010).

The allocation has been sanctioned on the basis of Labour Budget prepared by the State Government recently.

As per the Labour Budget, 100 mandays will be given to each labour card holder in three districts – North, Dhalai and South. However, mandays generation will be 92 in West district during the current financial year.

Last year, the State received Rs 514.27 crore for carrying out the national flagship programme and out of which Rs 24 crore remained unspent.

Talking to media, Rural Development Minister Jitendra Chowdhury here on Sunday said that Tripura bagged second position in terms of NREGA implementation across the nation. Congress-ruled Rajasthan stood first (72 mandays) and Tripura secured second which generated 64 mandays in the last financial year, according to website of RD Ministry.

Chowdhury said that an average of 95.42 per cent allocation under the NREGA was spent in the State and only 4.50 per cent remained unspent.

On the utilization of NREGA fund, he said that the RD Ministry had released Rs 50 crore within four days of March that resulted in unspent Rs 24 crore of the total allocation – Rs 514.27 crore. On being asked whether the State has resources to absorb the current year’s allocation, Chowdhury informed that around 700 unemployed youth would be appointed to ensure proper utilization of funds available under the national flagship programme.

The recruitment will be done after completion of upcoming Panchayat elections scheduled to be held in July. The blocks will have more Junior Engineers, Computer Operators and Gram Rojgar Sevaks to execute the NREGA, he said.

Admitting that there were reports of malpractice in the national flagship programme, Chowdhury said that the government has already taken steps to stop such kind of practice.

Of the total 6.13 lakh jobcard holders, about 50 per cent were given bank passbooks and the rest will be offered the same facility within a short period. The assurance came in a meeting between RD Minister and bank officers held at Civil Secretariat today.

As part of full-proof mechanism to check malpractice, the government has also decided to make the on-line project projection as mandatory. No project under the NREGA will be sanctioned without the on-line projection, he added.

Source: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jun0109/ne5

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