Bidar: The State Government has introduced important changes in the guidelines of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It will henceforth be called the Karnataka Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

The taluk panchayats and zilla panchayats will be allowed to implement the scheme from now on. Till now, only gram panchayats were empowered to select beneficiaries and works and to monitor the scheme.

From this year, the gram panchayats will get 51 per cent of the funds, taluk panchayats 29.5 per cent and zilla panchayats will spend 19.5 per cent of the allocation. This change follows complaints by many zilla panchayats that the Government had not taken them into confidence while implementing the scheme. The Dakshina Kannada and Bidar Zilla Panchayats had passed resolutions demanding more powers under the scheme, sources in the Government said.

The zilla panchayats should take up flood and drought control measures, small irrigation projects and other works. Taluk panchayats should focus on drought-proofing works, rejuvenation of traditional water bodies, rainwater harvesting and providing irrigation to farms of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families.

The gram panchayats should take up only land development and watershed development. Another important regulation is the amount of spending on roads. In the earlier scheme, road repair and relaying works were given the last preference.

The amount of money to be spent on them was not specified. Now, the implementing bodies should spend only 6.5 per cent of the total allocation.

Technology will be increasingly used in the scheme's implementation. Every work will be coded. The system of web-based monitoring of works will be introduced. Day-to-day progress of work will be photographed and pictures uploaded to the Internet.

Senior officials in the State or Central level can thus monitor the progress of works sitting in their offices in Bangalore or New Delhi. Complaints against misuse of funds or irregularities will be investigated using the codes and the pictures.

All these steps will introduce transparency and improve efficiency of the scheme, a senior officer said.

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