More number of families would get jobs in Chhattisgarh under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ajay Chandrakar said on Thursday.
Conducting a review of the department activities, the Minister told the officials to ensure that more and more families get jobs under the centrally sponsored scheme.He also directed the officials to give highest priority to paying the pending wages under MGNREGA. The Minister also urged the officials of the banks and post offices to cooperate in addressing the payment related difficulties. Chandrakar is holding a three-day review meeting here and today was the second day of the meeting.
He said that works should be carried out by converging MGNREGA with other schemes.The officials informed in the meeting that budgetary provision of Rs1528 crore have been made in the State for year 2014-2015 under MGNREGA.Of this, Rs968 crore is the estimated cost while the actual expenditure has been estimated at Rs864 crore.
They further informed that after the convergence of NREGA with other departmental plans, 2,573,503 man-days have been created through 130,000 jobs until August 2014.Chandrakar said that Chhattisgarh is the first state which has made provision to provide 50 additional days of work to the workers under MGNREGA.
With this provision, a worker is getting a total 150 days of work in a year under the scheme. He said this benefit should be given to rural households in greater numbers. Similarly, provision has been made to give pregnant women a month's maternity allowance.Chandrakar directed the officials to ensure that all needy women workers received the benefit of this provision.