Malda ranks 3rd in NREGS

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 2 JULY: The Malda district has secured third position in the performance league table measuring the implementation levels of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), from 1 April to 31 May 2009.

The principal secretary of the panchayat and rural development (P&RD) department, Dr MN Roy, confirmed this information to the district administration on 1 July.

Analysing the district's ‘labour budget’, and the main parameters and scale of implementation of the NREGS over the last two months, when compared with other districts in West Bengal, show that the Malda district has ranked third.

At the beginning of the current financial year the Malda district ranked seventeenth, and few days ago, when the minister of state P&RD, Mr Bankim Ghosh, came to Malda, he said that the position of this district was seventh.

The district administrative officials expect that NREGS reports for this district will be better in future because it has already observed NREGS Week, from 6 June to 12 June, across the district.

The additional district programme coordinator for NREGS, Mr Kajal Banerjee, said: “NREGS is the ideal comprehensive developmental programme for a rural belt. There are sufficient fund flows and no difference between the actual plan and its implementation in this district”.

Between 1 April and 15 June the Malda district was able to spend Rs 14.14 crore out of available funds of Rs 28.16 crore. A total of 193 schemes have been completed, and 1,320 schemes are in progress.

In implementing NREGS, the district has created 12.67 lakh ‘person days’, and a total of 82,147 households have already been given jobs under the employment guarantee programme.

Based on present inputs, the district has been able to provide 16.5 job days, ‘person days’, (Shram Diwas), out of 100 days, and the average registered female labourer has received 26.46 days job out of 100 days.

“We have achieved quantity but we need to ensure the quality of employment guarantee schemes by applying a social audit system”, said Mr Tanay Deb Sarkar, the district nodal officer, NREGS.