SEGC approves labour budget of Rs 1908 crore for 2010-11

With a view to provide 100 days wage employment to 20 lakh families in the state, the Orissa government has approved a labour budget of Rs 1908 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGEGS) for 2010-11. It was approved in the meeting of the State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC) chaired by the chief minister Naveen Patnaik today.

The labour budget for the current fiscal is based on the labour demand of the districts. It may be noted that the state had prepared a labour budget of Rs 2092 crore for the last fiscal.

However, the Empowered Committee of the Union ministry of rural development (MoRD) had cut last year's labour budget to Rs 1059 crore for Orissa.

The council, in its meeting today took note of various allegations pertaining to the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

It was decided that all the complaints pertaining to the implementation of the scheme would be addressed through the state level monitors.

On the issue of delayed payments for the works taken up under the scheme, it was decided that the Business Correspondence (BC) model would be expanded to all the Gram Panchayats.

The state government has already entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State Bank of India (SBI) and the model is being implemented in 1000 Gram Panchayats in Ganjam, Gajapati and Mayurbhanj.

Sources said, out of the Rs 976.45 crore provided to Orissa during last fiscal, the state was able to spend Rs 917.94 crore which is 94 percent of the total provisions.

While 13.83 lakh families were provided wage based employment through the scheme, 80,000 families were able to work for 100 days during the year.

Works like digging of farm ponds, community tank and land development were taken up under the scheme, resulting in satisfactory expenditure under the scheme.