The Meghalaya government today claimed that it has created 500 jobs a day during its four-year tenure, a figure that works out to 7.3 lakh jobs.
“Livelihood opportunities for rural households in the state have been a key focus area of the state government,” a press release said today.
The government also took credit for Rs 4,000 crore being invested in rural employment under MGNREGS in the past four years, even though the funds are supplied by the Centre.
“Simultaneously, an average amount of Rs 13,600 has been transferred to each rural household in the last four years under the MGNREGS programme, creating more than 75,000 rural infrastructural assets in the past four years,” the official release said.
The government claimed that the MGNREGS “success” in the state down to the use of Village Employment Councils (VECs) that oversee the scheme at the local level, even though there have been numerous reports of corruption in VECs dotted around the state.
“In the last year alone, more than 99 per cent of the people who applied for the job cards have successfully received it. Schemes such as MGNREGS have been instrumental in states like Meghalaya where more than 80 per cent of the population resides in rural areas,” it added.
The government highlighted some success stories, such as Kongthong village, where a 90 metre bridge connecting it to Mawrah village has been constructed at a cost of Rs 80 lakh. Labour on the project cost Rs 50 lakh. Work on the bridge began in 2019 and provided 196 people with work under MGNREGS.
Another example provided was from Ranikor where villagers have constructed public washing places and toilets with rainwater harvesting.
