4 cr mandays created in Odisha in Apr-Jun

The Odisha govenrment has utilised Rs 1243 crore and created 4 crore man days under the MGNREGA during the first quarter of 2016-17.
This was stated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while addressing the State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC), the state-level apex body under MGNREGS.
He said the state government has taken up construction of at least one play ground in every gram panchayat under MGNREGS to groom rural sports talents, besides massive plantation, rural housing programmes and creation of durable assets.
"I am glad that our state is performing very well under MGNREGS in generation of person days, expenditure and creation of durable assets," he said.

In 2015-16 against the labour budget of 7.60 crore person days the state had generated 8.95 crore person days by spending Rs 2074 crore, Patnaik said.
During 2016-17 against the annual labour budget of 8 crore person days, Odisha has already generated about 4 crore person days within the first 4 and half months spending more than Rs 1243 crore, he said.

The chief minister said the labour budget and livelihood planning for 2015-16 under MGNREGS was prepared in all gram panchayats through intensive participatory planning exercise.
Besides, the National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) has been introduced by state with effect from April 1, 2016 in which wages of the labourers are being credited directly to their accounts.

The state government, he said, provided 150 days of employment across all blocks of Nuapada district and 6 blocks of Bolangir district from 2013-14 to 2015-16 to tackle migration problem in these areas. The cost of additional 50 days was borne by the state government.
The state government had also provided additional 50 days of work over and above 150 days of employment and additional 30 per cent wages to the labourers under MGNREGS in drought affected blocks from the state fund to mitigate the drought situation in 2015-16.
Stressing on the convergence of MGNREGS with other schemes of line departments, Patnaik said a large number of durable assets are being created in the state.