Shillong, Jun 6: The State Rural Employment Society (SRES), a Society for the implementation of MGNREGA, PMAY-G, RGSA, CFP, Community & Rural Development Department, Government of Meghalaya informed that the Ministry of Rural Development, has released the Material & Administrative component towards MGNREGA for an amount of Rs. 391 crores.
This amount has been released to meet the pending liabilities of Financial Year 2021-22 under the programme which earlier could not be released due to various reasons- viz., merging of all subsidiary accounts in only one State Nodal Accounts (SNA), a major revamp in the NREGAS oft module capturing all details of staff, vendors (both administrative and material), skilled workers, etc among others which are aimed at bringing about transparency and accountability in fund transfer.
The last fund received by the State was in March 2022 for an amount of Rs. 49 crores.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma personally took up the matter with the Union Minister, Rural Development and was subsequently followed up by the Hamletson Dohling Minister, C&RD for early release of the funds by the government of India.
Once these funds released by the government of India are credited to the state exchequer, these will immediately be disbursed to the respective VECs within this month.
Meghalaya has a unique requirement where MGNREGA is implemented not only for wage employment but for creation of durable assets in the rural areas which are the way forward for other developmental activities to find a way to penetrate the rural areas.
The state continues to stand as one of the top performers in implementation of the scheme.
MGNREGA has a mandate to utilise at least 60 percent of the funds received Natural Resource Management (NRM) annually.
With the initiation of the new Financial Year, the targets under the programme are focussed on Natural Resource Management, Water conservation and Water harvesting, Climate Change reversal to bring about a paradigm shift in the implementation processes through constant dialogue and awareness about the immediate needs of intervention.