The Centre has directed states, including Karnataka, to utilise 60 per cent of the funds released under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for implementing works directly linked to agriculture and allied activities during 2014-15.
In a communication to the State Government, R. Subramanyam, joint secretary, Union Ministry of Rural Development, said that “60 per cent of the works to be taken up in a district in terms of cost should be creation of productive assets directly linked to agriculture and allied activities through development of land, water and trees.”
Six activities
Following the Centre’s order, the State’s Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Ministry has decided to spent 60 per cent of the allocation on six activities and they are – farmers’ land development, farmer’s threshing yard field, sheep/cattle shed, our village – our water, our village tank, and our land our way.
The Union Rural Development Ministry said that all the work taken up by Gram Panchayats, the cost of the material component including the wages of the skilled and semi-skilled workers should not exceed 40 per cent of the GP level. There are 5631 GPs in the State and 96 per cent of works are executed by GPs.
For works taken up by the implementing agencies other than GPs, the overall material component including wages of the workers should not exceed 40 per cent at the district level, MGNREGA Special Commissioner Prabhash Chandra Ray told The Hindu .
The Centre has approved budget for Rs 3151.76 crore for the MGNREGA in 2014-15 for 9.34 crore person days work. The Centre has so far released Rs 1055.59 crore as on August end. The total expenditure incurred was Rs 746.71 crore.
A total number of households registered under the job scheme are 57.23 lakh and job cards issued to 56.69 lakh households. The department has been paying amounts to labourers and material purchase through electronically to bank accounts in all districts. A total of 1,000 engineers and 400 agriculture and forestry graduates have been engaged through manpower agencies to monitor quality of works executed by GPs.
