Bhagwant Mann, the chief minister of Punjab, argued on 16th, June for the best possible use of the MGNREGA programme to support rural development and provide job opportunities.
He held a meeting to examine the MGNREGA programme, which stands for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
The scheme, which guarantees at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to any household whose adult members volunteer to perform unskilled physical labour in every fiscal year, is crucial, according to the chief minister, since it improves livelihood security.
According to him, the programme has been in place since April 2008 in every district in the state. He further stated that the state government would increase the program’s budget to Rs 2,000 crore.
It is encouraging to read that the state has 11.53 lakh active job cards, according to a formal announcement quoting Mann.
He lamented that the state’s salary rate, as announced under the plan, is Rs 303 lower than nearby Haryana’s, which is Rs 357, and said the state government would bring up this matter with the federal government.
He added that the state government will make deliberate efforts to include the laying of underground pipeline activities to the list of permitted activities in order to speed up work on projects related to irrigation, water supply, and sanitation.
According to him, the state administration will also ask the Centre to contribute corpus funds to the programme.
According to Mann, the state administration will also ask the Indian government to increase the funding allocated for man-days because the state has only been granted a 250 lakh objective, which is far below the 321 lakh days achieved the year before.
He also emphasised the importance of spreading awareness of the plan to help the average person.
Every workplace covered by the programme should have an information board set up, he continued, in order to tell the public about the programme and the specifics of the job completed.