SHILLONG: Chief Minister DD Lapang on Monday said the government would streamline the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to benefit the poor.
After chairing the meeting of the Meghalaya State Employment Guarantee Council here on Monday, Lapang said the government would simplify the disbursement of wages under NREGS to the people.
The government has already increased the wage under NREGS from Rs 70 to 100, he mentioned.
Lapang said the government wants to see that benefits under NREGS reach the poor in the rural areas. "Hence the government will do away with the Area Employment Councils so that wages can be disbursed to the village employment councils directly from the block level," he said.
Under the present system, blocks distribute the wages to the area employment councils and the latter disburse them to the village employment councils. The purpose of changing the pattern is to speed up the effective implementation of NREGS, the Chief Minister said.
The meeting was convened to review progress of implementation of NREGS) in all the seven districts of the State. The meeting also discussed issues related to amendment of guidelines of NREGS, review and consider improvements in the monitoring of the scheme and also the need to have a redress mechanism.
The meeting also discussed the annual report of NREGS for 2008-09 to be placed before the Assembly.
Besides the Chief Minister, others who attended the monitoring meeting include Agriculture Minister JA Lyngdoh, Chief Secretary WMS Pariat and Principal Secretary CD Kynjing, among others.
NREGS system simplified
