Jagpal Singh Sandhu, Financial Commissioner, Development, has directed the officials to implement the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme honestly and in effective way, so that maximum number of beneficiaries could avail benefit from it.

Sandhu was addressing a meeting of the Development Officers at Circuit House today.

Sandhu said that the NREGA was enacted with an objective to provide legal guarantee for 100 days of employment to adult members of any rural household willing to do unskilled manual work at statutory minimum wage. He said that under the programme, the government will provide 100 days’ guaranteed employment to one person of a family registered under this programme through the village panchayat. As per the revised rates, a labourer will now get Rs 123 per day. He said that he would be provided unemployment wages if an applicant did not get a job within 15 days of applying. These wages too would be borne by the government, he revealed.

Sandhu said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had given directions to implement this scheme successfully in Punjab. He said that to implement this scheme, the Deputy Commissioner had been appointed as District Project Coordinator and SDM as Deputy Project Coordinator. He said that SDMs and BDPOs would be responsible to implement this scheme.

He asked the BDPOs that they should get approved their casual leave from concerned SDMs and seek permission to leave station headquarter in future. He said that BDOs’ole was crucial in successful implementation of this scheme in the village. He warned of a stern action agaist those officers fould showing negligence towards implement this scheme. He said that the Forest Department would provide 40 lakh plants for plantation in the villages.

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