Centre releases Rs 7787 crore to districts, Rs 6016 crore used

New Delhi, Mar 14 (UNI) The Centre has released Rs 7787.36 crore to the 200 districts under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act upto March 12, 2007, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Ministry of State for Rural Development Chandra Sekhar Sahu said in a written reply that an amount of Rs 11,300 crore was allocated under NREGA during 2006-07 of which this amount was released. The States have utilized Rs. 6016.11 crore during 2006-07.

Earlier, an amount of Rs 2292.57 crores was released to the districts out of National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) budget in 2005-06 since there was no separate budget of NREGA, he added.

In another reply, he said 130 more districts are proposed to be covered under NREGA during 2007-08 which have been identified on the basis of the poverty criteria. Fifty districts from the list of BRGF districts, 15 districts with incidence of farmers' suicide while five districts that were bifurcated and created with the district with the original name already included in NFFWP / RSVY / BRGF. The newly created districts with new names which were left out of these programmes are now included.

Moreover, 34 districts have been selected from the Planning Commission Ranking of Backwardness used for identifying NFFWP districts viz SC/ST population, inverse of agricultural productivity, and inverse of agricultural wages.

In order to make an equitable distribution, at least two districts in addition have been selected from each special category State as well as from States whose minimum number is not covered under the above mentioned criteria. This covers 22 districts while four districts have been taken up as Learning Impact Districts.

Necessary provisions have been made in the Act itself by providing for monitoring of the Act at each level and also for Social Audit at Gram Sabha level. NREGA guidelines also provide for constitution of local vigilance and monitoring committee of the beneficiaries. States have been requested to ensure compliance with provisions of Act&operational guidelines, he informed.

UNI