Tripura tops rural jobs scheme for fifth year

Agartala, April 4 :

Tripura maintained its top position for the fifth consecutive year by providing 87 person-days’ rural jobs per household during the 2013-14 fiscal, an official said Friday.

“Tripura has been providing the highest average employment for the past five years under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),” state’s rural development joint secretary C.K. Jamatia told reporters here.

“Tripura provided 87 days of work per household in the 2013-14 fiscal against the national average of 45 person-days,” he said.

“Tripura has retained the top position since 2009-10. Another northeastern state, Sikkim came second with 58 person-days per household, followed by Tamil Nadu with 56 person-days,” he added.

The MGNREGS mandates 100 days of employment in a financial year to at least one member of each rural household.

According to the central government performance report on the MGNREGS, of the 644 districts in India, South Tripura district topped with 97.46 person-days.

Jamatia said the central government has allocated Rs.1,406.93 crore for the current financial year (2014-15) to generate 5.13 crore person-days. He said Tripura can further improve its figures if central funds are received on time.

Tripura also leads in participation of tribals in the MGNREGS with 45 percent against the national average of 16. A total of 48 percent women got rural jobs directly in the state against India’s average of 54.

The official said Tripura also expects a rise in its MGNREGS allocation for the coming fiscal.

He said Tripura was the first to introduce the e-FMS (Electronic Fund Management System) last year to make the monetary system — from fund allocation by the union and state governments to payment to labourers — transparent, hassle and error-free and paperless besides eliminating administrative delays.

Tripura is providing wages to the MGNREGS workers at their doorstep through business correspondents engaged by various nationalised and regional rural banks, he said.

Besides providing rural jobs, the MGNREGS has created rural assets that include household latrines, drinking water sources, rural road connectivity, livestock promotion, pisciculture, watershed management, and afforestation, securing livelihood activities.

(IANS)