Bhubaneswar: Bringing yet another applaud to Odisha as a leading performer in many developmental interventions, State is now sailing ahead of national average in many indicators of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and now focuses more on need-based projects in convergence with MGNREGS.
Presenting the updates of MGNREGS before the Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy and Development Commissioner, Suresh Mohapatra, Director, Special Projects Rajesh P Patil, who is also the State Mission Director for MGNREGS said, “Odisha is ahead of national average in many indicators including project completion, Geo-tagging, timely payment of wages, individual beneficiary based projects, e-payment, and employment generation.”
Around 91% of the projects up to FY 2018-19 have been completed against the national average of 89.5%. Similarly, 95% of the assets created under MGNREGS during Phase-I and 84% assets created under Phase-II have been geo-tagged against the national average of 91% and 79% respectively.
So far as timely payment of wages is concerned, 99.4% of payments have been made within the scheduled timeline in the State as against the national average of 96.5%. The percentage of the completion of individual beneficiary based projects has gone up to 86% against national average of 68%.
The percentage of workers seeded with Aadhar number and paid their wages through e-payment is around 89% against national average of 74%. The percentage of man-days created in Odisha is 85% of the approved labour budget against the national average of 79.6%. In the current year, 844.92 lakh person days have been generated by 20th January which is 14.67 lakh more than the person-days created during 2018-19.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary has directed the departments to take up more need-based projects in convergence with MGNREGS. It was decided to take up more projects in sectors like agriculture, horticulture, rural housing, land development, rural sanitation, plantation, seedling raising, rural parks, livelihood enhancement, water harvesting, pond development, etc. Chief Secretary directed the concerned departments to keep ready a shelf of innovative projects as per the need of the local community in consultation with the Panchayati Raj department.
Tripathy also directed to take up child-friendly interventions in Anganwadi Centers and development of land given under the Forest Rights Act in convergence with MGNREGS.
Outlining States’s achievement, Principal Secretary D.K Singh said, “Odisha is now on leading front in the matters of convergence with other projects”. Effective convergence have been made in the projects like green fencing, nutri-garden and plantation in AWCs, development of rural park, the establishment of panchayat library, the building of GP Ghara, beautification of multi-utility GP tank, intercropping plantation, fodder cultivation, construction of cattle shed, dug well and land development.
Lemon grass cultivation in convergence with MGNREGS has proved effective in Subarnapur district. Experts say farmers can earn Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 per acre through this cultivation.