Karnataka - Bangalore

Six more districts included in rural employment scheme

Bangalore: The Karnataka Government has received a bonanza of sorts from the Centre to provide rural employment to the poor at the cost of the latter. What was given to five districts in 2005 and implemented last year has now been extended to an additional six districts, and the second phase of the scheme is all set to be launched in a fortnight.

It is another matter that the State Government had requested the Centre to extend the scheme for eight backward districts. This was, however, not considered by the Centre which obviously engaged a different yardstick to grant the benefit. The districts for which the programme was sought do not find a sanction, barring one — Bellary.

While the five districts covered under the first phase of the programme were Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Chitradurga and Davangere, the six districts covered under the second phase would be Belgaum, Bellary, Chikmagalur, Shimoga, Hassan and Kodagu.

The State’s request to the Centre was to extend the programme to Bijapur, Koppal, Gadag, Bellary, Haveri, Kolar, Tumkur and Chamarajanagar since these districts witnessed a higher rate of farmer suicides compared to the others. Sources in the government told The Hindu that the State had also received a rich assistance under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which operates under the provisions of the NREG Act.

While nearly Rs. 380 crore was given to the State during the last financial year, the Centre for the current year has approved nearly Rs. 800 crore which would translate into more employment, and consequently the completion of more number of labour oriented works.

Principal Secretary (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) K. Jairaj held two rounds of discussions with the chief executive officers of the zilla panchayats on various aspects of implementation of the scheme. Although a huge advance is sent across to the State prior to the commencement of the scheme, the final settlement of the Centre is based on completion of works, a utilisation certificate and an audit report.

Yet another important feature for the current calendar year has been the hike in wages from Rs. 69 per day paid last year to Rs. 74. Compared to the big demand for the scheme in the rural areas, there is not much of a demand in the peripheral areas around urban centres since people were paid a much higher wage per day in the urban pockets. For all works, the Government has set apart 60 per cent of the funds for payment of wages and the balance of 40 per cent on the material component for the works. Further, of the total allocation of funds, the State has to provide 10 per cent and all the funds provided by the Centre should be utilised strictly for the payment of wages.

Mr. Jairaj said the aim now was to make Karnataka a model in the implementation of the rural employment scheme which is expected to have far-reaching effects in terms of poverty alleviation. The scheme assures a minimum of 100 days of employment in a calendar year, and in the last financial year the authorities provided employment to nearly 98 per cent of the people enrolled under the scheme.

Owing to the good monsoon so far, people have stuck to agricultural work and the NREG scheme is expected to get going only in October. So far, 2.6 lakh people have registered under the scheme in the districts and their job identity cards were in the process of being distributed.

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