40. Punjab government has failed to implement NREGA

Posted: Fri Oct 01 2010, 01:41 hrs Chandigarh:

 “The Punjab government has failed to implement the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) as it sent this year’s proposal late and hence only Rs 212 crore was approved by the Union government under the scheme,” Congress MLA Sunil Jakhar said during the Zero Hour. Jakhar said: “The government had claimed that it would send a proposal of Rs 1,516 crore to the Central government under the MNREGA this year, but later said a reserved proposal of Rs 1,485 crore would be sent. But it finally sent a proposal of Rs 485.21 crore only, that too in March instead of January according to the Central government’s guidelines.” Last year too, he said, the state government got only Rs 110 crore under the scheme as they had demanded too little money. “In March 2009, Panchayat Minister Ranjit Singh Bharampura had said on the floor of the house that they would ask for around Rs 1,400 crore under the NREGA next year,” alleged Jakhar. He added that the state also did not add its share of 10 per cent to the grant received by it. “On every October 2, the gram panchayat of every village has to pass a resolution regarding funds to be sought under the scheme, but hardly any gram sabha meeting has been called in any of the 12,000 villages in the state,” said Jakhar. He added that gram panchayats had also failed to appoint gram rojgar sewaks