Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Rs.1,300 crore spent on NREG scheme in State

M. K. Stalin

CHENNAI: Just over two and a half years after the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was implemented in the State, as much as Rs.1300 crore has been spent till now for creating assets in rural areas and on payment of wages. The total expenditure till end-March 2008 was Rs.620 crore. The scheme has now grown to assume the status of the flagship rural poverty alleviation programme of the Union Government.

“Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country which has successfully kept contractors and the labour-saving machinery out of the implementation of NREGS and which has a high representation of women (82 per cent) and Scheduled Castes (56 per cent) among its NREGS workforce,” a senior Rural Development department official said. The scheme can be implemented during the eight-month window between February and September. Registered households can seek 100 days’ work, but experience has shown that many were content with 20 or 50 or 80 days of work under the NREGS because they have other sources of livelihood and the scheme is meant only to supplement their income, a district-level official said.

The State has put in place checks to ensure that the scheme is carried out smoothly. Since the NREGS is implemented through village panchayats, the government designated the BDO (Village Panchayats) as the Block Programme Officer under the scheme. Also, ‘Makkal Nala Paniyalars’ in each village were designated village-level workers under the scheme.

One another scheme that has now been implemented is cash withdrawal through ATM for workers. “The number of workers is large. The payment, at the end of the week, is routed through banks. This creates a long queue at the banks at the end of each week. We are working with the banks to create more ATMs in rural areas to ensure quick disbursement of the cash,” said Rural Development Secretary Ashok Vardhan Shetty.

Local Administration Minister M. K.Stalin inaugurated the first such ATM in Cuddalore district on Saturday. The department has been talking to the banks since 2006. “This is a first in the country. We are talking to them to open more ATMs,” Mr. Shetty said.

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