The State Government is set to deliberate upon a proposal that would permit utilisation of the MlAs funds for the works undertaken under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Idea behind is to boost funding to the schemes as well as to promote a kind of convergence.
Immediate beneficiary by the way is going to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s one of the pet projects, the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, since less than 2 lakh such lavatories could be made so far on its first anniversary i.e. October 2, 2015. Under the scheme, an ambitious target to build whopping 35 lakh household toilets across the State by 2019 had been set for Jharkhand.
“Thinking within the Department is that all the organs of the Government have to come together for making the toilets making programme a success. We are preparing a proposal which would be brought before the Cabinet for approval. Under the proposal, we are planning to open MlA fund that is to be utilised for MGNREGA schemes as well. In this way, the fund can be used for building toilets under MGNREGA,” Principal Secretary of Rural Development Department NN Sinha told The Pioneer on Tuesday.
Revealing a bit more, the official added that any MlA can take a panchayat under his constituency to help it in gaining open defecation free (ODF) tag which has been the modus operandi of the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.
“To scale the target of 33 lakhs more toilets in the rest four years’ time, we will need to build 10 lakh toilets per year in Jharkhand. As it has been decided now that besides Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, the Rural Development Department would chip in and toilets would be built in villages under MGNREGA as well, the idea can expedite the things,” said Sinha on the sidelines of a workshop organised by the Government and Unicef.
At the same time, he also stressed to focus on the issue into the Village Development Plan which is going to be chalked out by individual Gram Panchayats in future.
Under the changed pattern of funding adopted by the 14th Finance Commission, the entire funding for ensuring 7-8 basic facilities and services at village level would now come directly into the kitty of Gram Panchayats. Schemes related to water and sanitation can be taken on priority at planning exercise at village level, said the official.
Chandra Prakash Chaudhary who is heading DWS Department while making announcement that by 2017, entire Ramgarh district would be declared ODF, stressed all the new rural elected representatives should be tasked to ensure toilets in every household.
For this year, total 620 Gram Panchayats are to be declared ODF of which 380 would be undertaken by the DWS Department while rest 240 have to be constructed through Rural Development under MGNREGA.
Since the programme started a year back by the Prime Minister on October 2, 2014 total 46 panchayats of Jharkhand have been tagged as ODF while another 25-30 are in the line and expected to attain it within couple of months. DWS Secretary AP Singh informed that a major milestone the State has achieved in this line is by ensuring functional toilets in all the 45000 Government schools across the State.