TN provides employment to 5.79 lakh households under NREGA

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) About 5.79 lakh households got employment under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in six districts of Tamil Nadu during 2006-07 while the state received over Rs 170 crore for implementing the programme.

The NREGA has further been extended to four more districts of the state during the current financial year. About 800 households have completed the 100 days of guaranteed employment provided in the Act up to February 2007.

The number of person days of employment provided in the state is 151.18 lakh. The average person days of employment provided in a district was 25.20 lakh compared to the national average of 36.47 lakh person days. Of them, 82 per cent are provided to women, 54.76 per cent to SC and 2.68 per cent to ST.

The employment provided was on 6.010 works, of which 1,513 number of works have been completed. The average number of works taken up in a district is 1,002 against the national average of 3,581. The average number of households provided employment in a district of the state is 96,579, while the National Average stands at 91,685.

An amount of Rs 170.89 crore was released to the state during 2006-07. Up to February 2007, Rs 126.15 crore was utilised, which is 50.91 per cent of the total availability. The expenditure on wages stood at 95.87 per cent and on administration was 4.13 per cent. The average expenditure on a district came out to be Rs 21.02 crore compared to the National average of Rs 35.00 crore.

A visit by the National Level Monitors in December, 2006 and January 2007 has revealed that Job Cards were issued on time, Numbered and authenticated muster rolls were used at the work site and Record maintenance at the GP level was according to NREGA and was updated in timely manner, an official release said here today.

UNI