Tamil Nadu has made use of the current spell of drought to create an all-India record in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
During the financial year of 2016-17, Tamil Nadu emerged as the top State in generation of person days under the scheme. Against the revised target of 35 crore person days, the State had recorded about 39.59 crore person days. The original target was 31.5 crore person days.
Due to the drought, the Centre agreed to the State government’s request for extending the number of days of employment from 100 to 150. With regard to the generation of person days, Rajasthan finished second with 25.95 crore followed by West Bengal with 23.46 crore.
Tamil Nadu’s performance last year broke the spell of under performance. Between 2013-14 and 2015-16, it failed to meet the annual target of generation of person days under the MGNREGS. In terms of percent, its performance varied between 70% and 98% cent in the three years.
Centre’s sanction
Officials of the Rural Development department say that a week ago, the Centre sanctioned around ₹ 2,480 crore for Tamil Nadu. The amount included the arrears of ₹ 1,640 crore towards wages to be paid to beneficiaries of the scheme for the year 2016-17.
In the last three days, the entire department was busy, authenticating the claims of lakhs of beneficiaries and intimating their feedback to the Central government.
“By Saturday evening, we completed our task. The transfer of money to the beneficiaries through bank accounts is in progress and it is only a matter of time that the arrears in the payment of wages, which has accumulated in the last six months, will all be cleared,” said the officials, adding that the Centre had also given funds for the first quarter of the current year for the payment of wages.
