In a bid to improve rural infrastructure even while providing employment, the State government has decided to earmark 40 per cent of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) funds for procurement of material components.
Making a special statement in the Assembly on Friday, Planning and Rural Development Minister K. C. Joseph said that 75 per cent of the money needed for the purpose would be provided by the Centre and the remaining 25 per cent by the State. The government hoped that the decision would help ensure permanent employment and better agricultural infrastructure in the rural areas, he said.
Mr. Joseph said the government had also decided to appoint joint programme coordinators in all districts. At present, only 8 districts had joint programme coordinators, whose brief was to monitor implementation of MGNREGS. It had also decided to create similar posts at the block level across the State. At present, only Palakkad and Wayanad districts had block level programme coordinators. The money needed for paying the salaries of the district and block level coordinators would be met from the MGNREGS funds.
The government would also give clearance for appointment of an accredited engineer and a data entry operator in all village panchayats that spend more than Rs. 60 lakhs. The salaries of accredited engineers would be hiked from Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 12,000, that of accountant-cum-data entry operators from Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 10,000 and that of IT professionals from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000.
The Central government scheme for providing Rs. 25 lakh to each block panchayat and Rs. 10 lakh to each village pancnayat for construction of Rajiv Gandhi Service Centre, which could function as the scheme implementation centre, would be implemented soon. Watershed-based master plans had been prepared in 686 out of the 978 village panchayats. Such plans would be prepared and implemented in the remaining 292 panchayats during the current financial year.
The block level engineering wing would also be strengthened to ensure efficient implementation of projects under the MPLAD/MLALAD schemes and such Centrally-sponsored schemes as Pradhan Manthri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). The engineering wing in each block would comprise an overseer, an assistant engineer and an assistant executive engineer. Initially, the posts would be filled through deputation and redeployment.
