No MGNREGA compliance pending from Bengal, says state official

Kolkata: There was no compliance pending from Bengal regarding MGNREGA as recommended by central teams that visited the state in 2019 and 2021, a senior official said on Friday. The teams asked for the recovery of funds and disciplinary action, and Bengal sent the last report to Centre on Oct 23.The official said there was strengthening of institutional mechanism and steps were taken for accountability and transparency measures. He said the major observation of the central teams was related to execution of non-permissible works, violation of guidelines and use of poor quality material. For this, the state govt set up ombudspersons and a director of social audit for grievance redress.The official said recovery of funds from job-card holders was only pending and the district administration was on the job. The expenditure for MGNREGA in 2020-21 was Rs 11,362.9 crore while in 2021-22 it was Rs 8,377.7 crore. An embargo was imposed in this financial year.Again, under PMAY (Gramin), there was no year-wise allotment since 2022-23, and thus the dues of Bengal are to the tune of Rs 8,140 crore. Bengal has, however, released the advance state share of Rs 1,333 crore.The official pointed out that Centre released in the last three financial years from 2021-22 to 2023-24, along with the current financial amount till December 2, 2024, totalling Rs 687.8 crore, while the quantum released from the end of Bengal govt for rural housing in the same period was Rs 6,637.9 crore.The official said Bengal got sanction for constructing 4,237 km of roads under PMGSY-III out of a nationwide sanction of 1,21,69 km, but no funds were released in this financial year.
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