Lamka, January 16: Nine months after the Chief Minister formally launched the NREG Scheme in the district, 784 projects, largely on rural connectivity were undertaken by 44,302 job card holders at an approximate cost of Rs 6 crores.

Addressing the media at his conference room today, DC Churachandpur Sumant Singh said, 90 percent of the initial instalment released for the district has already been utilised.

Of the 784 works undertaken under the scheme IVRs netted a whooping 521 projects, drought proofing with 98 projects and land development with 78 projects annexed the subsequent list of priority.

Visited already by two central representatives, Churachandpur has remarkably delighted the officials with its performance and the level of awareness in respect of the scheme.

With the initial instalment of the scheme, which accounted for about 9 percent of the total amount allotted for the district, the DC claimed that 10 to 15 days job have been awarded to each job card holders in all the ten TD blocks and their wages paid accordingly.

The process for awarding additional 8 to 9 days of work to 5 blocks which have been affected by Mautaam famine is on, he added while addressing the media.

With these additional days, the five priority blocks are set to receive more working days than their counterparts in the remaining blocks as they will be entitled to work for atleast 24 days in average.

The scheme with its initial instalment was implemented in all the blocks.

However the district now being on the threshold of Mautaam, any subsequent instalment receive from the Government will be utilised to ensure that people from the priority blocks receive cent percent works guaranteed under NREGS, Singh said.

The Chief Secretary and other high ranking officials were said to have instructed the district administration to give priority to the interior areas for the same scheme.

The priority blocks wherein cent percent allocation of work are targeted include Tipaimukh and Vangai blocks, while the target set for Thanlon, another interior block that was hit hard by the menace was 50 percent.

Satisfied with the success of its implementation achieved so far, Singh upon query said, 'it is beyond my expectation.

The village authorities have been sincere in implementing the scheme'.

He nevertheless accepted that there were some minor cases of loopholes in certain villages in view of the recently concluded village authority elections.

Some people who failed to get re-elected took seize of some job cards, but the matter has been more or less settled as the concern BDOs were instructed to cancel the missing job cards and to re-issue them afresh, he said adding, 'There are just one or two villages'.

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