CM vows timely payment of MGNREGA wages

SHILLONG: The State Government has decided to temporarily augment the corpus of the Meghalaya Contingency Fund from Rs 205 crore to Rs 455 crore and more than Rs 200 crore of the increased fund will go into paying job cardholders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the State.
Speaking to media persons after the cabinet meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said the Government is trying to ensure that the wages for job cardholders are regularly released in view of the increased absorption capacity of the programme.
Sangma said MGNREGA, the flagship programme of the UPA, has brought tremendous transformation in the lives of rural people and that the State wants to ensure maximum absorption by job cardholders.
“We want to ensure that the fund flow for the scheme is not dislocated,” Sangma said, adding that the corpus fund for MGNREGA may even exceed more than Rs 200 crore since this is a working season. Replying to a query, the Chief Minister asserted that the State Government is encouraging convergence mode of implementation of programmes through MGNREGA and additional resources would be topped up for a larger outcome.
There will be an extra allocation of 50 percent for constituencies for implementation of various projects in convergence mode with funds available under the Chief Minister’s Special Rural Development plan.
“We are trying to encourage the VECs through respective block development officers and elected representatives for further compilation of programmes under convergence mode and extra Rs 5 lakh will be given for each constituency,” Sangma told reporters.
Meanwhile, the State Government has also decided to provide 40 percent extra funds to VECs for materials under the scheme so that the communities can create more durable assets in the state.  There are close to 5 lakh job cardholders in the State and the Government is keen on increasing the number of job cardholders for the scheme in rural areas.