NREGA to be streamlined by this fiscal-end: Govt

Announcing the extension of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme to all the rural districts in the country from today, Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that his ministry would ensure that the programme was free of all problems by the end of the third year (2008-09 financial year).

"We agree that the programme was marred with problems, including those related to implementation. While these are only aberrations due to some local problems, we would take necessary steps to make it effective," Singh told reporters at a press conference here today.

The minister added that payment of wages would be made to workers through post offices and banks, while vigilance and monitoring would be tightened at all levels.

At present, a total of 11,028,779 accounts have been opened in Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

Singh said that during 2007-08 (till February), as against the demand from 3.10 crore households, NREGA was able to provide wage employment to 3.08 crore rural households in 330 districts where it was operational.

A total of about 122 crore mandays of work was created and on an average, each family was provided with 40 mandays of employment, he said.

For the year 2008-09, NREGA has been allocated Rs 16,000 crore and will be made operational all over the country from today.