MGNREGA: Centre following Mamata's footsteps

Kolkata: By the time the Centre had realised the need for and announced additional fund to engage migrant workers under the MGNREGA scheme, the Mamata Banerjee government had successfully created lakhs of man-days just by providing jobs under the scheme to migrants who returned to Bengal from different parts of the country.

Jobs were provided to migrants across the state while only in Malda around 5,000 man-days were created just by providing jobs to migrant labourers. 1 lakh man-days was created daily in Murshidabad district where most of the beneficiaries are from families of migrant labourers. Most importantly, all works have been carried out following the lockdown norms including physical distancing. According to a senior officer of Murshidabad district, so far around thousands of migrant labourers returned to the district.

Those among them who have completed 14 days quarantine have been enrolled and are being provided with jobs under the scheme.

In Malda, per day 80,000 people are provided with work under MGNREGA scheme and around 5,000 of them are migrant workers who returned from different parts of the country. "Our target is to take up the number to 40,000 per

day from 5,000 in the next 10 days," said a senior official of Malda

district.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee along with the Panchayat minister held video conference with all district magistrates on Thursday giving direction to provide jobs to migrants under the scheme.

When asked about the state's share in Rs 40,000 crore additional fund for MGNREGA scheme as announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday apart from the budget allocation of Rs 61,500 crore, a senior official of the state Panchayat and Rural Development department said it is not a matter of getting an allotted fund. Amount gets directly transferred to beneficiaries' bank account.

"So more the man-days we can create, more number of people will be benefitted. There is no such ceiling in creating number of man- days," the official said.

Subrata Mukherjee, minister of the state Panchayat and Rural development department, said: "Bengal had been consistently maintaining the top position in creating man-days. Now we are providing jobs to migrant workers returning from other states and targeting creation of atleast 30,000 crore man days in this fiscal."

He added: "With most activities coming to a standstill due to lockdown, now the MGNREGA scheme has come up as one of the few options left for generation of jobs."