Source: The Sangai Express / Manipur Information Centre
New Delhi, April 25:
Tamenglong District in Manipur was one of 200 districts in the Country selected for launching the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) enacted by the United Progressive Alliance Government to provide a legal guarantee for 100 days of employment in every financial year to every rural household with an adult member willing to do unskilled manual work.
The scheme starting from February 2 last year will cover whole of India in five years.
The households demanding employment in Tamenglong District stood at 18 thousand and all of them were provided employment up to February 2007.The average number of households provided employment in the district of Manipur was 17.880 against national average of 91.685 households.
Sources from the Ministry of Rural Development said that the number of person days of employment provided in the district was 8.26 lakh.
The average person days of employment provided in the district was 8.26 lakh compared to the national average of 36.47 lakh person days.
The employment was provided on 234 works, out of which 15 works were completed.
The average number of works taken up in the district stood at 908 against average of 3.581.During 2006-07, an amount of Rs 12.53 crore was released to Manipur under the scheme.
Against this, the utilization up to September 2006 was Rs 9.50 crore, which was 49.15 per cent of the total availability.
For the financial year 2006-07, the budgetary provision for NREGA was Rs 11,300 crores for implementation of the scheme in the country.
The expenditure on wages was 60 per cent and on materials was 40 per cent while no administrative expenditure was incurred.
The average expenditure of the district in Manipur was Rs 9.50 crore compared to the national average of Rs 35 crore.
The Act provided that one third of the employment provided should be to women.
In the district, 40.07 per cent person days of employment was provided to women.
The scheme was initially launched in 200 districts in the country including 15 districts in the North Eastern States with one district of Tamenglong in Manipur.
In the current financial year 2007-08, the scheme has been extended to some more districts in the country.
Out of 113 districts identified, 23 districts in North Eastern States� two each in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim; three in Meghalaya, four in Nagaland and six in Assam were added.
The two districts of Manipur that would be under the scheme were Chandel District and Churachandpur District.