BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on Thursday, requested the Centre to release Rs 676.57 crore to meet an immediate requirement of funds to pay workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).While an amount of Rs 2,290.19 crore was to be released to the State by December end, the Centre had disbursed Rs 1,613.62 crore till date, which is a shortfall of Rs 676.57 crore, the Chief Minister said in a letter to Union Rural Development and Panchayatiraj Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
The approved labour budget of Odisha is 678.13 lakh person days for Rs 2108.51 crore out of which the Central share is Rs 1909.6 crore, the Chief Minister said and added that there was committed liability of Rs 380.59 crore pertaining to the 2016-17 financial year. “In all, Rs 2,290.19 crore had to be released by the Centre to the State by December-end,” he said.
Naveen said FTOs (fund transfer orders) of Rs 130.53 crore were pending with Ne-FMS (national electronic fund management system) to be credited to the accounts of MGNREGS workers. The Government had declared 5,958 villages under 1,097 gram panchayats of 70 blocks in 15 districts as drought affected. “Yet, labourers are not evincing interest in availing MGNREGS work due to non-receipt of wages on time, which may cause distress migration” he said and added, “On its part, the State Government has ensured that all FTOs are generated on time without any delay,” Naveen added.
Stating that the State Government has created a corpus of Rs 300 crore to meet any eventuality caused by the non-availability of funds under Ne-FMS so that the wage earners are paid within the stipulated time period, the Chief Minister said since the Ministry of Rural Development has not finalised the modalities for release of recoupment of the corpus fund, the State is not able to utilise this fund to meet the exigency.
A request to allow the State to utilise the corpus fund has been sent to the Ministry of Rural Development, he said and added that the modalities for release and recouping the fund may be finalised and communicated to the State at the earliest to ensure timely payment of wages. Alternatively, he suggested that Odisha be allowed to revert to the electronic fund management system (e-FMS) from Ne-FMS so that the State Government could pay wages utilising the corpus fund as and when required.
“I, therefore, solicit your intervention for the release of Rs 676.57 crore to meet the immediate requirement of funds till December-end or allow us to disburse wage to MGNREGA workers through e-FMS mode out of the corpus fund of the State Government, subject to reconciliation of the amount on receipt of allocation from the Ministry of Rural Development,” he said.