The Ministry of Rural Development has released the pending dues of Rs 391 crore to Meghalaya as material and administrative components related to implementation of MGNREGA in the State.
This was informed by the State Rural Employment Society (SRES) of the Community and Rural Development Department, Government of Meghalaya.
This amount has been released to meet the pending liabilities of financial year 2021-22 under the programme which earlier could not be released due to various reasons such as merging of all subsidiary accounts in only one State Nodal Accounts (SNA), a major revamp in the NREGA soft module capturing all details of staff, vendors (both administrative and material), skilled workers, etc among others which are aimed at bringing about transparency and accountability in fund transfer.
The last fund received by the State was in March 2022 for an amount of Rs 49 crores.
It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Conrad Sangma personally took up the matter with the Union Minister, Rural Development and was subsequently followed up by the Minister of Community and Rural Development and Principal Secretary, Community and Rural Development Department for early release of the funds by the Centre.
Once these funds are released by the Central government and are credited to the State exchequer, they will immediately be disbursed to the respective village employment councils (VECs) within this month.
While there are no such issues with regards to wages component, which are normally paid within 15 days after submission of muster rolls, the technical aspects have caused an inadvertent delay on the material components.
Meghalaya has a unique requirement where MGNREGA is implemented not only for wage employment but for creation of durable assets in the rural areas which are the way forward for other developmental activities to find a way to penetrate the rural areas.
The State Rural Employment Society (SRES) has greatly appreciated the exemplary work of VECs for implementing the MGNREGA scheme for not only creation of wage employment but for taking up various innovative development works to benefit the rural people at large. It also said that Meghalaya continues to stand as one of the top performers in implementation of the scheme.
MGNREGA has a mandate to utilise at least 60 per cent of the funds received for Natural Resource Management (NRM) annually.
With the initiation of the new financial year, the targets under the programme are focussed on Natural Resource Management, water conservation and water harvesting, climate change reversal to bring about a paradigm shift in the implementation processes through constant dialogue and awareness about the immediate needs of intervention.
