Odisha expected to utilise Rs 2,000 cr of MGNREGS fund

The Odisha government today claimed to have emerged as a top performer in terms of implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS) with total fund utilisation estimated to touch about Rs 2,000 crore by the end of March 2016.
"We are optimistic that the total utilisation might touch Rs 2,000 crore by the end of March 2016. Around six crore man days have been created up to February 25, 2016 against five crore man days created during 2014-15," Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh said after the fourth Governing Body meeting presided over by Chief Secretary A P Padhi.

The total utilisation of funds under the scheme during the current fiscal up to February 25, 2016, has been to the tune of Rs 1,746 crore against the total utilisation during 2014-15 fiscal at around Rs 1,059 crore, he said.
Stating that around 16.93 lakh households have been provided employment during this fiscal, Singh said this shows an achievement of 89 per cent of funds utilisation.
Participation of women and ST and SC people in man days created has been 95 per cent and 97 per cent respectively, Singh said.
He said in the current financial year, Odisha has come up to eighth position in utilisation of funds under MGNREGS from 12th position during 2014-15.

"In the process, Odisha has gone ahead of leading states like Karnataka, Kerala and Maharastra during the current year," Singh said.

While complimenting the department and the field-level officers for this achievement, Chief Secretary Padhi directed them to bring more projects into the fold of MGNREGS.
Padhi asked different departments to formulate appropriate project proposals and scale up their activities at the ground level.
Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary Finance R Balakrishnan, present in the meeting, was asked to issue suitable advisories to all departments in this regard.