Bhubaneswar: To provide more work to daily labourers, the state government has set a target to utilise `3,000 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) during 2018-19.
Chairing a high-level meeting here at the Secretariat, Chief Secretary AP Padhi gave this direction to the Panchayati Raj (PR) department.
The state made an expenditure of `2,515 crore under the scheme during 2017-18 by creating 9.22 crore person days of engagement. The utilisation in the financial year 2015-16 was around `2,000 crore, which was raised to around `2,100 crore in 2016-17.
“Odisha has scaled up its performance in MGNREGS and has topped the list at the national level in some important indicators. In geo ID generation of the assets created under the scheme, the state has achieved 98 per cent against the national average of 96 per cent,” said PR secretary DK Singh.
The state occupies the top position in creation of assets at the household level under the scheme and convergence of the scheme with construction of anganwadi centres and rural housing, he said.
While 5,420 anganwadi centres have been completed under the convergence, 7.35 lakh beneficiaries have been assisted under the convergence with an expenditure of `689 crore, Padhi stated.
The chief secretary directed the different departments to take up more projects in convergence with the scheme for creation of additional jobs and assets.
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