GULBARGA: Less than 50 per cent of the States, where the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is being implemented, have followed the priorities fixed by the Centre for works to be taken up under the scheme.

Official sources told The Hindu that except Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, and West Bengal, other States had deviated from the priorities fixed by the Centre.

Backward districts

The project is being implemented in 200 districts that have been identified as backward. While framing rules, the Centre had stated that implementation agencies should accord priority to water conservation, drought proofing, land development activities and afforestation, and also take up construction of roads and other labour-intensive work.

Sources said according to the latest figures, most States did not follow the priorities fixed by the Centre in taking up works under the scheme.

Funds used

However, Andhra Pradesh Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Tamil Nadu had followed the priorities and utilised the funds released to them.

Of the works taken up by Andhra Pradesh, 82.29 per cent was on water conservation, drought proofing and tree plantation, followed by Gujarat which accounted for 73 per cent on water conservation, drought proofing and tree plantation.

Similarly, Rajastan implemented 69.20 per cent of works, followed by Uttaranchal and Tamil Nadu accounted for 64.03 and 59.86 per cent respectively, the sources said.

Largest beneficiary

Bihar, which was the largest beneficiary of the NREGS project with 23 districts covered under it, had failed miserably to take up works according to the priorities fixed by the Centre. Only 15.87 per cent of works taken up by Bihar were under the priorities fixed by the Government,

Similarly, Uttar Pradesh where 22 districts had been included in the NREGS, water conservation, drought proofing and tree planting works constituted only 33.51 per cent of the total works, the sources said.

However, Madhya Pradesh, which had shown tremendous progress in utilising NREGS funds, had performed well with 59.03 per cent of the total works taken up according to the priorities fixed by the Government. In Karnataka where the scheme was being implemented in Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Davangere and Chitradurga districts, 48.28 per cent of the total works came under the priorities fixed by the Government, they said.

Performance

The sources said the overall performance of 27 States in the implementation of the scheme was only 53.91 per cent.

During the national-level review of the programme held in New Delhi on November 1, the issue of deviation from priorities was discussed. The States, which had deviated from priorities, were been asked to implement the scheme according to the guidelines.

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