The district officials and elected panchayat members have been directed to lay emphasis on the effective execution of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme in the district. Job card holders should be given 100 days’ work under the scheme, said Dehradun district Panchayat president Chaman Singh while addressing the members of district and block panchayats and gram pradhans at the day-long programme held in Dehradun on Wednesday.
Singh made it clear that no job card under the scheme should be left out as far as providing them with 100 days’ work is concerned. The objective of this scheme is to provide 100 days’ work to the rural residents and so it must be ensured that all the card holders of the village should be benefited by the scheme, he said.
Besides, the local public representatives should create awareness about the welfare schemes launched by the State Government among the beneficiaries apart from ensuring intended beneficiaries are benefited, Singh said.
He further invoked the 14th Finance Commission to stress that all the panchayats have been given rights to draft work plan under the scheme for the development of their villages.
He appealed to the elected representatives to work to implement the scheme which has been launched to ensure livelihood of the poor villagers. “They should work to develop social structure apart from strengthening panchayat raj institutions,” Singh said.
Dehradun Chief development officer Alok Kumar Pandey said that elected representatives can play a significant role in the effective execution of the scheme. He mentioned that any villager can apply for work. “It is mandatory to provide them with work within 15 days,” he said, adding that unemployment allowances will be provided if they are not provided work within 15 days.
Dehradun district development officer Sushil Mohan Dobhal said that several rights have been given to panchayat members to strengthen the panchayats under 14th Finance Commission. Important projects can be selected in the meeting of village panchayats for the development of the village under the scheme, he said.
Village sanitation, roads, playgrounds, disaster management works, flood control works, drainage, nallah construction, dipping nallah for flood control and others have been selected by the local panchayat representatives for the development of the villages, Dobhal said.
“They can play significant role in building toilets for all the persons living in the gram panchayats. They can also motivate the villagers to construct toilets after procuring loan from the banks. They can also assist them in procuring loans from the bank. The state government has decided that those who do not have toilets would not be able to contest any election. Thus it is imperative that each villager should have a toilet of his own. In the interest of general health, one should motivate his neighbour to build toilet in, his house” he said.
District panchayat officer MM Khan said that job card holders should submit applications, seeking work in their panchayats only.