CHENNAI: With the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme set to cover six districts in Tamil Nadu, the State administration has started the spadework.

Sivaganga and Dindigul are the new districts to be covered under the scheme. In Villupuram, Thiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts, the ongoing National Food for Work programme will be merged with the job guarantee scheme.

Official sources say 3,830 village panchayats and 85 special village panchayats in the six districts will be covered.

The Centre will issue a notification, specifying the date from which the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act comes into force. Within six months, the State Governments will prepare a scheme providing for not less than 100 days of guaranteed employment in each financial year to each household in rural areas where adult members are ready to do unskilled manual work.

The sources say sensitisation and training programmes are under way for officials at different levels. Though there is no official word about the launch of the scheme, the State Rural Development department has planned to complete the training programmes by the month-end. The labour demand assessment is also being undertaken.

In the third week of December, special Gram Sabha meetings were organised in the village panchayats concerned, to apprise the public and other stakeholders of the salient features of the scheme. Ten days ago, a workshop was conducted in Chennai for the six District Collectors and senior officials at the field level.

Now, the sensitisation programme at the block level is on to cover elected representatives and officials. Later, it will shift to village level. Greater thrust is being given to the village-level programmes, as village panchayats will be the key players in the new scheme. The perspective plans for four districts have also been prepared. They are being approved by the local bodies, from the level of village panchayats to district panchayats.

The administration has proposed, in tune with the provisions of the Act, to adopt the annual action plans under the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana for the new scheme in Sivaganga and Dindigul districts, the sources add.

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