BELLARY: The implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the district would commence from June. The Bellary Zilla Panchayat has decided to accord priority to the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities to create awareness among people about programme being implemented in the district and the need to enrol themselves for jobs, according to C.M. Shirol, Chief Executive Officer.

BPL families

Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, he said that there were 2.54 lakh households in the district according to the Sarva Kutumba Sameeksha. Of this, 69,000 families were below the poverty line (BPL).

All the households would be covered as part of the IEC activity and people would be educated on the procedures to avail the benefits of the scheme. An intensive publicity campaign would also be undertaken, he said.

Meanwhile, the process of preparing projects and issuing job cards would be carried out and the process completed by the end of May. "The implementation of the scheme would begin from June," he said.

Bellary was among the six districts to be included under the NREGS in the second phase.

Around 90 per cent of the funds for implementing the scheme would be provided by the Union Government and the remaining by the State Government, he said.

Mr. Shirol said workshops would be held at the taluk and hobli level to educate presidents of taluk and gram panchayats, officials and gram panchayat secretaries about the scheme.

Participating in a district-level workshop on the implementation of the scheme, Mr. Shirol, who is District Coordination Officer for the NREGS, said the scheme was to provide employment to the needy for a minimum of 100 days. A minimum wage of Rs. 74 a day would be paid to each person and the payment should be made through the bank or post offices.

He asked officials concerned with implementing the scheme to prepare a plan for the next five years.

Priority projects

He stressed the need to propose projects that would be long-lasting and to accord priority to watershed projects. "Roadwork gets the least priority under the scheme," he added.

Arvind Srivastav, Deputy Commissioner, who inaugurated the workshop, said that the main aim of the scheme was to ensure jobs to BPL and above poverty line families. "This is a major scheme and provides an opportunity for all to work for the welfare of the people and development of the district. Based on the experience of the other districts, where the scheme was in vogue, we can improve the projects and implement the scheme more effectively," he said.

K.A. Ramalingappa, vice-president of the zilla panchayat, participated in the discussion.

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