Tavinjal grama panchayat in Wayanad district has stood first in the country in fund utilisation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), spending as much as Rs.5.05 crore during the financial year 2009-10.
Edavaka panchayat, which spent Rs.4.33 crore, in the district came second. Adimaly panchayat in Idukki district and Agaly panchayat in Palakkad district stood third and fourth, spending Rs.4.22 crore and 3.56 crore, respectively, during the period.
“We had targeted to spend as much as Rs.50 crore under the MGNREGS through the various projects of the 25 panchayats in the district, but were able to spend Rs.50.13 crore during the financial year,” C.V. Joy, joint program me coordinator, MGNREGS, Wayanad, told The Hindu on Saturday.
As many as 31 lakh working days were provided for 57,924 workers under the scheme during the period and 79 per cent of them were women, he said. The extension of the scheme into the holdings of marginal and small-scale farmers in the district was the main achievement of the financial year, Mr. Joy said.
“We were able to extend the scheme to all the lands of the small and marginal farmers in the district through 221 watershed projects,” he said. As many as four lakh saplings of fruit trees and cash crops were grown in various nurseries under the project for planting in the lands of the small-scale farmers. Various projects such as digging elephant trenches to protect from wild animals the life and property of villagers living adjacent to the forest areas and work on 369 km of fire line to check the threat of wild fires, were implemented.
All arrangements had been made to provide smart cards, an online system through which a worker can know the details of his work by visiting kiosks, in five panchayats in the district, Mr. Joy said.
