Tripura has continued to remain on top in implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) while Sikkim came a close second in the 2009-10 fiscal.
State Rural Development Minister Jitendra Choudhury told UNI over phone from Delhi today that the State achieved on an average 82 days out of promised 100 days of waged employment to the people residing in the rural areas. Choudhury said the performance evaluation report of the Union Ministry of Rural Development released last week revealed that Sikkim had been placed next to Tripura by offering 80 days wage employment under MGNREGA.
“Tripura’s achievement is significantly higher than the national average of 54 days, which encouraged us to retain the achievement over the next years,” Choudhury said, adding that after Tripura and Sikkim, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh were placed in third and fourth position in implementation of MNREGA respectively.
Tripura’s performance in MGNREGA had been recognized as best since beginning of the scheme as one of the flagship programmes of the UPA Government and the State was able to most successfully implement the programme for the poor having a national budget outlay of Rs 39,100 crore. Meanwhile, in implementation of Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Tripura’s performance was recorded at 32.29 per cent as against the national average of 83.52 per cent in fiscal. However, Assam recorded 75.34 per cent in IAY implementation and other NE States recorded much below the national average, including Manipur (25.3), Meghalaya (60) and Arunachal Pradesh (55.42). (UNI)