Work on 7000 MGNREGA schemes in Arunachal incomplete: Central team

Itanagar: Work on 7000 MGNREGA schemes in Arunachal Pradesh are incomplete since the scheme started in 2006, a visiting senior Central government officer informed Chief Minister Pema Khandu here on Friday.

Joint Secretary (MGNREGA) in the Union Rural Development ministry Aparajit Sarangi leading a Central team on a monitoring tour of the MGNREGA works being executed in the state called on Khandu at his office on Friday. In the meeting the visiting team highlighted their observations from their visit to Lower Subansiri district, an official communique informed.

Informing that currently only three types of work – drainage, roads and flood protection were being executed on the ground, the Joint Secretary emphasized on the need to diversify the works. She urged the state government on the need for orientation and awareness programme for the rural people to give them scope to diversify their works. She, however, drew satisfaction that the people had high level of awareness on MGNREGA schemes.

Informing the chief minister that the Centre is keen to provide more funds under MGNREGA, Sarangi emphasized to expedite the process to enable the state to receive full grants. She urged the state government to submit utilization certificates (UC) for these works so that the Centre would release more funds. Sarangi also emphasized for geo-tagging of assets created under MGNREGA scheme informing that PM is personally monitoring these works.

For successful implementation of MGNREGA in the state, the joint secretary suggested for a full-time secretary or commissioner level officer to work on it as it is a huge department. She also emphasised on training programmes for officers and staffs of the department. “These measures when taken will equip the department for monitoring works,” she said and suggested certain measures while coming up with 15-points suggestions for the Rural Development Department for quality work.

The Chief Minister directed the department to immediately work on submission of UCs for all the pending works. He also asked them to set a target for geo-tagging of MGNREGA assets. State Rural Development Minister Alo Libang informed the visiting Central team that the state government is working to improve the system and make it more efficient. (PTI)