Dearth of funds hit NREGA in Assam

From our Correspondent

JORHAT, Jan 2: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has failed to contain its goals particularly in the 27 districts of Assam as lakh of NREGA job card holders have yet to get the guaranteed employment under the Act. Though the rural development department of Assam Government had taken up the project in three phases among the districts of the State but in every phase lakh of people have not got their jobs after passing more than one year of their registration. In fact, in many districts the act has turned into a state of standstill due to the lack of Government funds.

This surprising fact has come to the light in a report of the Department of Rural Development under Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. According to the report, out of 43,19,350 numbers of registered job card holder persons only 1,365 have been able to get the hundred days employment under the Act in the State. This apart, as many as three districts namely– Karbi Anglong, North Cachar Hills and Kamrup have no hundred days job holders as yet. According to the Central Government report as per the districts the number of hundred days job holders are- Bongaigaon-50, Dhemaji-112, Goalpara-15, Kokrajhar-109, Lakhimpur-183, Barpeta-42, Cachar-78, Darrang-48, Hailakandi-35, Morigaon-16, Nalbari-8, Baksa-64, Chirang-16, Dhubri-91, Dibrugarh-2, Golaghat-237, Jorhat-11, Kamrup (Metro)-8, Karimganj-1, Nagaon-13, Sivasagar-30, Sonitpur-9, Tinsukia-139 and Udalguri-48 only.

The Central Government had implemented the NREGA aiming to enhance the livelihood, security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose volunteer to do unskilled natural work. But in case of Assam this Act has been made unsuccessful for the dearth of funds. When contacted, a top official of the rural development of Assam Government told The Sentinel that, all the districts have submitted hundreds of development schemes to release the required funds to the Government. But due to shortage of funds the district rural development authorities have eventually failed to take up the projects. “If the Government would be able to release the required funds to the districts to start the estimated schemes, the registered job card holders will get their jobs under the act,” he added. THE SENTINEL