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Friday, October 11, 2013

Centre releases Rs 82 crore for MGNREGA in Sikkim

GANGTOK, 10 Oct [IPR]: In view of the impressive performance and transparency safeguards under the MGNREGA in Sikkim, the Union Ministry of Rural Development has released Rs. 82.46 crore for Sikkim for 2013-14. Since MGNREGA is a demand-driven scheme, this financial sanction is to meet the demand for wage employment, keeping in view the good physical progress made by the state.
During 2013-14, as many as 60,000 rural households (of the total 92,000 rural households) will be provided employment in all the 176 Gram Panchayats of the state. November to March is the agriculture lean season, and sees maximum demand under MGNREGA by the villages for wage employment.
As many as 94,000 post office and bank accounts have been opened, and 100% wage payments are released directly into these accounts using Electronic Muster Rolls. A total of about 2,500 works that have been passed in the Gram Sabha and sanctioned by the Zilla Panchayat will be completed this year. These works relate to minor irrigation channels, jhora training, village footpaths, school playgrounds, water storage tanks, dhara vikas, horticulture plantations, fodder development and land development under CMRHM.
This year the scheme has been able to diversify the shelf of works, providing added focus on water conservation. These works will be supervised by the technical personnel (AE, JE, horticulture officers, forest officers, panchayat inspectors, APOs) posted at the Block level in the Gram Vikas Kendras. All expenditure incurred will be validated by financial audit by CA, independent Social Audits and performance audit by the CAG.
In the recent Performance Review Meeting held in Delhi on 25 September, 2013 the performance of Sikkim under MGNREGA was ranked in the top two in the country along with  Andhra Pradesh. While the national figure of the average persondays per household hovers at 45, it is expected that the state will touch a figure of 80 by the end of this financial year. This translates to an additional family income of about Rs 10,000 for 65% of the rural households of the state. This additional income mostly earned by women, translates to better health and nutrition, quality of life and purchasing power for the rural people. Consequently, the state has bagged five National Awards under MGNREGA and also the PMs Award for Excellence in Public Administration. The target for this year is to further strengthen the planning and estimation process with more extensive Social Audits.

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