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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Laggard Bengal leaps to top 5 -Basant Kumar Mohanty

Laggard Bengal leaps to top 5 -Basant Kumar Mohanty

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published Published on Dec 7, 2014   modified Modified on Dec 7, 2014
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Bengal appears to have emerged as one of the best performers in implementing the rural job scheme, rising to fourth on the list from being one of the laggards even two years back.

According to figures with the rural development ministry, the state has generated over 11.3 crore persondays of work since April, next only to table-topper Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Till 2012, it was among the worst performers in terms of persondays per household, with an average of around 20 against the all-India average of about 45.

Bengal rural development secretary Saurav Das said the state government treats the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as the "most important" among such welfare laws. "The difference is that earlier the MGNREGA was being treated as one of many schemes. Now it is being treated as the most important scheme," Das said.

Sources in the rural development ministry said Bengal had been given over Rs 3,740 crore so far, the highest the Centre has released for any state under the scheme since this financial year started.

The amount - a little over Rs 750 crore was released earlier this month - includes an outstanding amount the state government had spent from its own pocket last year.

The money released so far bears out what rural development secretary Das said about the state's turnaround, which started last year when the total employment generated reached 22 crore persondays.

The total number of persondays had earlier never crossed 10 crore in the state, which has around one crore job cardholders, about half of them active workers under the scheme that seeks to provide up to 100 days of work to every rural household in a year.

The state has sought more funds from the Centre, including an immediate release of Rs 1,000 crore to ensure that the scheme doesn't stall for lack of money.

Das underlined the state's seriousness about the scheme, saying the government has designated an officer in each district to monitor the programme's implementation while district authorities have put one officer in charge of each block. State rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee, he added, holds a review meeting with district collectors every month.

District collectors and block development officers now realise their career progression depends on how best they implement the scheme, Das said. But implementation, he added, might be affected if the Centre does not release money in time.

A ministry official in Delhi agreed that Bengal's performance has improved over the last two years but said release of funds was linked to submission of utilisation certificates. "The state government submitted the required documents in the last week of November. That is why the release of funds was delayed," the official said.

Social activist Nikhil Dey, however, questioned the logic behind delaying release of funds. "If a state has not submitted an audit report, what is the rationale for punishing poor workers by delaying their payment?" he said.

"Many workers in Bengal and other states might not have got their wages within the stipulated 15 days due to the delay in the release of funds from the Centre. This will discourage them to work under the MGNREGA. The central government is deliberately doing this," Dey said.

Activists have been critical of the changes the NDA government has proposed for the scheme, including plans to increase the material component in relation to labour.

Dey said funds-cut in all social-sector programmes has become a general phenomenon, alluding to the finance ministry's decision to trim the MGNREGA budget by Rs 3,000 crore for 2014-15.

The Tripura government, for instance, had sought Rs 1,400 crore, but the Centre agreed to give only Rs 650 crore. It has released Rs 373 crore so far.

Rural development minister Birender Singh told the Rajya Sabha last week the scheme would neither be diluted nor neglected.


The Telegraph, 7 December, 2014, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141207/jsp/nation/story_2468.jsp#.VIPUjXs_-BE


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