Orissa to spend Rs 1,935 crore under NREGS this fiscal

Sify.com, June 5, 2010
The Orissa government has targeted to spend a record Rs 1,935 crore this fiscal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG- NREGS), one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government at the Centre.


If achieved, this will be a 115 per cent growth over Rs 900 crore, which the state government had spent under the scheme in 2009-10.

Said Prafulla Samal, state Panchayati Raj minister, "In 2009-10, we had spent around Rs 900 crore and this year, we have targeted to spend Rs 1,935 crore under MG-NREGS. An action plan has already been prepared in this connection and we are hopeful of achieving this target."

State chief minister, Naveen Patnaik on Friday reviewed the status of MG-NREGS in as many as 18 districts of the state through a video conferencing with the district collectors in the presence of the Panchayati Raj minister and S N Tripathy, secretary, Panchayati Raj department.

The collectors of all these districts have been asked to expedite work on the implementation of MG-NREGS so that more and more beneficiaries are brought under the scheme.

The minister informed that while Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts have recorded exemplary performance in the implementation of MG-NREGS, the progress of the scheme has been satisfactory in other districts like Kandhamal, Bhadrak, Balasore and Angul.

Asked on the progress of the scheme in the economically backward KBK (Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput) region, he said, a survey is being carried out in these three districts to check whether the implementation of MG-NREGS has led to the fall in exodus of labour to cities and towns.

Efforts are also on to ensure that women and people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes become the beneficiaries of the scheme, Samal stated.

Besides, emphasis is also being laid on greater coordination among all the departments to ensure effective implementation of MG-NREGS.

Briefing reporters after the review meeting, chief secretary T K Mishra said, "MG-NREGS is not just for the Panchayati Raj department as various other departments including agriculture as well as forests and environment have a role to play in its implementation. This calls for a greater inter-departmental coordination to ensure successful implementation of the scheme."

"The scheme has two basic objectives- offering employment to the locals and creation of durable assets both for the individual and the community. Our goal is to get optimum benefit out of the scheme", he added.