The proposal of the rural development department was approved by the state council in its third meeting here on Tuesday. The council is supposed to meet once in every six months but the Tuesday’s meeting was convened after three years. The decision will benefit 518 block programming officials, 259 technical assistants (equivalent to assistant engineer), 259 computer assistants, 259 accounts clerk, 914 technical assistants (equivalent to junior engineer) and 4,562 rojgar sevaks.
According to the proposal approved by the council, a block programming official will get Rs 14,000 per month instead of Rs 10, 000, a technical assistant (AE rank) will receive Rs 12,000 instead of Rs 8,000, a technical assistant (JE rank) will get Rs 9,000 instead of Rs 5,000, a computer assistant and accounts clerk will get Rs 8,000 a hike of Rs 500 and a gram rozgar sevak will be entitled for a monthly honorarium of Rs 5,200 in place of Rs 3,500. Transportation allowance and mobile coupon reimbursement have been kept unchanged.
State MGNREGA commissioner A K Singh said the increased honorarium would cost an additional monthly expense of Rs 143.63 lakh on the government exchequer. He, however, said the additional expenditure on establishment cost would be met from the central share of funds meant for the MGNREGA scheme and there would be no additional load on the state exchequer. The proposal is to pass by the finance department and the cabinet for final ratification.
Singh said Jharkhand stood at seventh position in the country in terms of creation of mandays and percentage expenditure of funds on labour payment. "In terms of giving employment to job card holders, Jharkhand is slightly better than the national average as 26% of job card holders were provided with employment as against the national average of 25% during the same period."
The meeting was chaired by deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahato, who is also in charge of the rural development department, chief ministerArjun Munda joined the meeting later and directed the council members to ensure effective implementation of the scheme. "It is surprising that even after panchayat elections there has not been remarkable increase in the distribution of job cards and work allotment," Munda said directing the members to arrange training for the Gram Sabha to select schemes.