'Bengal tops nation in strength of workfore, second in generating mandays under 100-day job scheme'

Kolkata: State Panchayats and Rural Development minister Pulak Roy said on Wednesday that Bengal has ranked second in creation of mandays under the 100-days' job scheme and first in workforce strength in the country.

He said that in the current fiscal, 33,94,59,146 mandays have been created till March 7, in response to a query from TMC MLA Samir Jana during the question answer session at the state Assembly.

"The state is first in the country in terms of the strength of workforce and has managed to engage a total of 1,07,98,452 workers under this scheme during this period," Roy said. According to Roy , the state government had sought permission from the Centre for creation of 35 crore mandays. However, approval has been given for only 27 crore. "Approval has been sought for 33 crore mandays in the 2022-23 financial year," he added..

Sources in the Panchayats department said the Centre had initially approved a labour budget of 22 crore mandays for West Bengal in the current financial year.

However, due to heavy demand of work under the 100-days job scheme in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the state achieved the target by October last year.

The state government had approached the Centre for additional mandays following which, the central government approved another five crore mandays. which also got exhausted by December last year due to the huge demand of 100 days work in

the state. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has often expressed her concern over the curtailment of allotment for the MGNREGA scheme.

In the Union budget this year, the Centre allotted Rs Rs 73,000 crore for the rural job scheme, which is 25 per cent lower than Rs 98,000 crore, the revised estimate for the plan in the current fiscal.