AGARTALA, Nov 20 � The much-hyped MGNREGA has once again failed to meet its main target � providing 100 days employment to each jobcard holder in Tripura.
The startling revelation came to light at a review meeting of Rural Development department held at Civil Secretariat here on November 4 last. While job generation under the national flagship programme against each jobcard holder stands at 45 mandays in Dhalai district, it is only 32 mandays in West district till October. The other two districts � North and South are also lagging behind in terms of job generation. While each jobcard holder receives only 34 mandays in North, the same is only 40 mandays in South district.
Talking to reporters, RD Minister Jitendra Chowdhury said that these figures were average job generation under the national flagship programme. �It will go up because all the jobcard holders have not sought job under the MGNREGA�, he said. At least 15,000 jobcards have been made dormant as they did not seek job during the last financial year.
The Centre has so far released Rs 790.77 crore in two phases till October and of which the State has managed to spend Rs 365.07 crore. Chowdhury claimed that the job generation could easily be improved if fund is released on time but this has not been happening. �The State could not spend substantial amount of second instalment as it came only last month�, he pointed out.
It may be noted that the Centre had approved a labour budget of Rs 1,053.12 crore during the 2011-12 financial year. The total number of labourcard holders in the State stands at 5.91 lakh.
