By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: With inclusion of rest of the 17 districts on Tuesday, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, (NREGS), has been implemented in the entire Madhya Pradesh.
As many as 41 lakh families have been provided Job Cards in the newly included districts. The Job Card provides a family at least 100 days’ employment in a year. The Madhya Pradesh Government has sanctioned Rs. one crore each to these districts and has identified 1.50 lakh works for providing employment to villagers. Besides, blueprint of 39,464 secondary works has also been prepared. The state government has appointed about 300 officers for implementing the scheme.
The newly included districts are: Bhopal, Vidisha, Bhind, Gwalior, Morena, Sagar, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ratlam, Ujjain, Shajapur, Indore, Sehore, Raisen, Hoshangabad, Jabalpur and Narsinghpur.
Madhya Pradesh has been leading in implementation of NREGS right since its launching. The state government had started preparations months before implementing the last phase of the scheme in remaining 17 districts. Training was imparted for better implementation to office-bearers at the district, Janpad and Gram Panchayat levels. The second phase of the scheme has also got underway from today. In the first phase, training was imparted to 7,500 office-bearers and 600 officers of Panchayats.
As many as 17 senior officers have been appointed for intensive monitoring of the NREGS implementation including Project Coordinator Ravindra Pastor, director Rajiv Gandhi Water Management Mission Sachin Sinha and director Rural Employment AS Ahlawat. These officers today visited districts under their charge and ensured successful implementation of the scheme.
Participation of one-third women has been ensured in implementation of NREGS. A sum of Rs five lakh has been provided to every Janpad for widespread publicity of the scheme. One assistant each has been provided for every seven villages for better maintenance of records relating to Gram Panchayat plans.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Suresh Pachauri inaugurated the NREGS at Hoshangabad. On this occasion, State Assembly Deputy Speaker, Hazarilal Raghuvanshi, Congress District president Vijay Dubey and other Congressmen of Hoshangabad district were also present. ([email protected])