Labour budget of person days under MGNREGA scheme increased to 27 cr
Kolkata: With the success of the Bengal government in creating the allocated 22 crore person days under the MGNREGA scheme in the first seven months only, the Centre has increased the labour budget for the state to 27 crore person days.
The increase in labour budget comes at a time when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself is in Delhi. Though the state had created the entire 2021-22 financial year's allocated 22 crore person days job at least a month months ago, the Centre's nod in terms of increasing the labour budget for Bengal came a day after Banerjee set her feet in the nation's capital.
In the current fiscal the Centre had allocated 22 crore person days for Bengal.
With all series of initiatives taken up by the state Panchayat and Rural Development department to ensure jobs for the rural populace, the state government had created 24.5 crore person days by the end of October.
Sources said that the Centre has also given its nod in terms of sanctioning the additional person days (2.5 crore) created than that of the initial approval of 22 crore.
Till Wednesday, the Bengal government has created 24.84 crore person days that is 112.91 per cent of the initial allocation of the labour budget.
Out of the total, around 45.87 per cent person days were created by engaging women. Around 26 per cent and eight per cent person days were created by engaging people from schedule caste and schedule tribe communities respectively.
Total 94.30 lakh individuals worked so far to create the 24.84 crore person days.
The Bengal government had provided jobs to lakhs of people under the scheme during the Covid pandemic when Subrata Mukherjee was the minister of the state Panchayat and Rural Development department.
With the demise of Mukherjee, the Chief Minister has given the department's responsibility to Pulak Roy. "Following the Chief Minister's direction, it had been our constant endeavour to ensure that the rural mass do not get deprived of the benefits the scheme. It helped us to create more person days than that of the initial allocation," Roy said.
