Job card holders in IE get only 26 days of work
Source: Hueiyen News Service / NNN

Imphal, August 24 2012: It has been discovered that in Imphal East district, job card holders of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) get the least number of working days at 145 only over the past five years though the scheme provides 100 working days in a year.

In that case, on average 29 days of work in a year.

The matter came to light when Imphal East district Zilla Parishad Up-Adhyakshya K Rajen disclosed it while addressing a press meet at the Panchayat office, Porompat.

He said the key reason behind not getting 100 days of working by job card holders in the district was due to stagnant of NREGS fund caused by delay in the working process of the job card holders.

Another reason was that the past five years had gone swiftly as job card holders attempted to complete works in various phases, Rajen added.

The public alleged that the Zilla Parishad and the Gram Panchayat have siphoned off all the remaining funds because the job card holders in the district did not get the normal number of working days, he said.

However, he said this allegation must be wrong because all the funds sanctioned on yearly basis is available on the website www.rural.nic.in .

In the year 2007, a total number of 52, 000 job card holders were given wages in five phases for the first time in the district when the rate of wage was fixed at Rs 81.40 per day, Rajen said.

Each job card holder received Rs 2405 for 30 days of working in six phases and the sanctioned amount was Rs 25, 09, 000 .

In 2009-10, Rs 34, 43, 26, 000 was sanctioned for 42 days of working and the job card holders got Rs 3332 each in five phases, he informed and said for the year 2010-11, Rs 26,98,37,00 was sanctioned and distributed in three phases, Rs 42,51,66,00 for the year 2011-12 .

All these factors attributed to the less number of working days, he maintained and said this was the main reason why the job card holders got only 145 working days.

He also informed that 60 per cent of the fund is utilised as wages and the remaining 40 per cent is used in purchasing tools for the job card holders.

Some individuals are deliberately trying to misguie the people through the media as the time for panchayat elections have come, Rajen accused.

He also clarified that 50 per cent of the development works is carried out by Gram Panchayat , 25 per cent each by Line Departmet (local MLA) and Zilla Parishad.

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