Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K.S. Eshwarappa said on Tuesday that the Union government has promised to sanction 50 additional mandays for the State to implement Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
Speaking to presspersons in Udupi, the Minister said that the Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Narendra Singh Tomar at a recent meeting promised to increase mandays from 100 to 150 and sanction an extra ₹ 800 crore for this purpose.
The State has achieved 10.5 crore mandays of work against a target of 13 crore mandays in 100 days. The Union Minister appreciated the State’s efforts in implementing the MGNREGA scheme, he said.
The Minister said that the gram panchayats in the State now get ₹ 1 crore annual grant from the government, up from ₹ 35 lakh earlier. In addition, they get funds from different schemes of the State and Union governments.
Mr. Eshwarappa said that the government has agreed to fund the gram panchayats up to ₹ 20 lakh for their solid waste management projects. Funds will be released to the panchayats under Swachh Bharat Mission based on the size of population. Funds for construction of toilets in rural areas have been enhanced to ₹ 12,000 and ₹ 15,000 for general category and SCs/STs, respectively, he said.
Mr. Eshwarappa said that the government will spend ₹ 300 crore in the next two years for harnessing solar energy in gram panchayats by installing solar panels on their buildings. Bids have been finalised for this project. Chief Executive Officers of the zilla panchayats may choose from among the empanelled agencies to implement the project in their districts.
When this project is implemented, dependency of gram panchayats on grid power will reduce. Electricity bills consumed a major share of the revenue of the panchayats. The agency that implements the project will also have to maintain the project for five years.
The department had consulted experts in the field of renewable energy to formulate guidelines to implement this project, he said.
The Minister was in Udupi to participate in the Janasevak Samavesha of the BJP. The samavesha was to congratulate the newly elected gram panchayat members supported by the BJP. It was also to prepare the party workers to face the coming elections to the zilla and taluk panchayats.
