Central government has expressed its concern over the slackness by Uttar Pradesh government in implementing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the state though the Centre has released the second installment of Rs 431.53 crores to the state government.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, in a letter to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the Centre has sent Rs 2696 crore to UP for implementation of MGNREGA so far during the current fiscal including the second installment of Rs 431.53 crore.
The letter of Jairam Ramesh specifically pointed out that against the national average of 33 per cent of people getting jobs under the scheme, in UP it was just 24 per cent. He also stated that state like Rajasthan has an average of 74 per cent. The minister also quipped that against the national average of 28 days work to a beneficiary, in UP it was just 22 days.
The Centre also raised concern about non implementation of Electronic Fund Management System (EFMS) for transparent and speedy payment of wages to the workers in the state. While states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharastra and Rajasthan have covered all the districts by EFMS but in UP only 11 districts out of the total 75 were covered by the system.
Ramesh also said that just 14 per cent of the work are being done in the private farms of small and marginal farmers which is also very scanty. The Minister has appealed to Yadav to personally look into the matters raised in the letter and do the needful at the earliest.