Orissa provides employment to 13.08 lakh households under NREGA

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) Orissa has provided employment to 13.08 lakh households under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), in the first phase during 2006-07.

NREGA was initially launched in 19 districts of state and another five districts have been added in the year 2007-08. As many as 13.21 lakh households demanded employment and out of them 13.08 lakh households were provided employment in the state.

The average number of households provided employment in a district of the state is 68,861 while the national average is 91,685 households. Besides, 48 thousand households have completed the 100 days guarantee of employment provided in the Act.

The number of person days of employment provided in the state is 626.61 lakh. The average person days of employment provided in a district is 32.98 lakh compared to the national average of 36.47 lakh person days.

An amount of Rs 762.30 crore has been released to the state during 2006-07. Against this, the utlisation up to February 2007, is Rs 540.33 crore, which is 60.88 per cent of the total availability.

The average expenditure of a district in the state is Rs 28.44 crore compared to the National average of Rs 35 crore.

The employment was provided on 51,521 works, out of which 18,803 works had been completed. The average number of works taken up in a district stood at 2,712 against the national average of 3,581.

The act provided that 1/3rd of the employment provided should be to women. In the state 34.17 per cent person days of employment has been provided to women and 24.18 per cent to SC and 48.56 per cent to members of ST.

A visit to the state by the State level Monitors have revealed that demand for employment is monitored during weekly NREGA day at Block office and Grievance Redressal day in GP.

UNI