Chhattisgarh's red districts bag MGNREGS award

Chhattisgarh's Dantewada and Narayanpur districts better known for the Naxal violence has bagged national awards for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The state received three national awards of which two were given to the Naxal-infested districts South Bastar (Dantewada) and Narayanpur for the best employment-oriented works in year 2013-14. Last year also, state's two districts Bijapur and Rajnandgaon and Gram Panchayat Kharthuli of Balod district were awarded National Awards.

Officials in the panchayat department said that Dantewada district has bagged the National Award in innovation category under MNREGA for the Organic Farming and Ksheer Sagar Projects. In the district, Mocho Badi Scheme has been initiated to promote organic farming and Ksheer Sagar Project has been started to enhance production of milk on cooperative basis. Both the projects have been successfully implemented.

They added that in Narayanpur, commendable works have been done under MNREGA. Against the employment demand for 13,714 families in the district, employment of 885000 days was provided to 13,301 families through various construction works under MNREGA in the financial year 2013-14. Participation of female workers in the construction works was considerably high.

During the period, 3690 families of the district were given employment of 100 days in one year, as per the provisions of Government of India. In year 2013-14, more than 2000 employment-oriented works have been carried out under MNREGA in Narayanpur district, for which wages worth Rs 12.77 crore had been distributed.

Farfaud Gram Panchayat of Raipur district has also been awarded for excellent works under MGNREGS.