Date:12/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/12/stories/2006101220360100.htm

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State seeks extension of job scheme

Special Correspondent

Centre requested to bring eight more districts under the NREGA

The scheme is now being implemented in five districts

40 per cent of the beneficiaries are women

C.M. Udasi

BANGALORE: The State Government has requested the Centre to extend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to eight more districts in the State, apart from five districts where the programme is being implemented.

Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj C.M. Udasi told presspersons that the State had asked the Centre to include Koppal, Bijapur, Gadag, Haveri, Bellary, Tumkur, Kolar and Chamarajanagar districts under the Act to provide employment to people affected by drought.

The Government planned to increase the daily wage under the scheme from Rs. 69 to Rs. 80, he said.

The prevailing wage in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh was Rs. 80 while in Maharashtra it was Rs. 60, Mr. Udasi said. The Act was being implemented in 200 districts in the country since February last.

The Union Rural Development Ministry had considered the State's request at a recent meeting in New Delhi and a communication was expected shortly, he said.

The Centre had approved the programme in five districts: Bidar, Chitradurga, Davangere, Gulbarga and Raichur. As many as 1.32 lakh man-days of employment had been generated by spending Rs. 70.99 crore, he said.

Of the sanctioned Rs. 29.61 crore, only Rs. 7.5 crore had been utilised in Bidar, Rs. 19.22 crore (out of Rs. 26.35 crore) in Davangere, Rs. 8.20 crore (Rs. 28.55 crore) in Gulbarga and Rs. 6.28 crore (Rs. 21.18 crore) in Raichur.

As many as 8,580 works had been completed or were in progress in the five districts. About 40 per cent of those who participated in the scheme were women, he said.

He refuted the Congress allegation that Rs. 135 crore had been released by the Centre under the NREGA and said that the Government had been releasing funds on the basis of requests from the district administrations concerned.

The scheme had helped to reduce the migration of people form rural areas to cities, he said.

In Chitradurga, where the administration had utilised Rs. 29.73 crore, the Government had decided to release another Rs. 50 crore.