State allows rebuilding of toilets under MGNREGA
Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has allowed reconstruction of household toilets — those damaged in Cyclone Yaas — using the manpower under the MGNREGA scheme to maintain its tag of an Open Defecation Free (ODF) state.
In a letter to all district magistrates regarding "restoration and rebuilding activities post Yaas cyclone", Additional Chief Secretary of the state Panchayats and Rural
Development MV Rao has stated that "...construction of household toilets is allowed under MGNREGA and same be done as per cost estimate already available in rural; sanitation for construction of these houses".
Sources said that each of the genuine beneficiaries, whose household toilet was damaged, would get "wage support of 90 mandays under state housing scheme category. As the wage support for each day is Rs 213, a beneficiary would receive the same of around Rs 19,170 for rebuilding a toilet in a household".
Almost all districts and municipal areas in the state are now open defecation free. But toilets in many affected areas mainly in East Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas were damaged due to cyclone Yaas. "So it is important to rebuild toilets to maintain the ODF tag and steps have been taken to ensure the same at the earliest," the officer said adding that they will be receiving the material cost separately.
This comes when the state Panchayat and Rural Development department has already provided 100 days work to 1.62 crore people in the first two months of 2021-22 fiscal despite election and Covid situation.
Like that of the last fiscal, the initial allocation of mandays for Bengal in this financial year is also 22 crore. In 2020-21, the Bengal government has provided jobs to the highest number of people by creating 41.40 crore mandays, which is more than the Centre's final approval of 41.25 crore mandays.
Out of this fiscal's 1.62 crore mandays, 21.96 percent and 7.37 per cent beneficiaries are from scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities respectively. Most importantly, 45.42 percent of the person days of the total were created by women. The average wage rate per day per person has also gone up to Rs 203.84 in 2021-22 fiscal compared to that of Rs 193.29 in 2020-21 financial year.
