Omar for dovetailing MGNREGA with R&B schemes

Srinagar: Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Friday directed for dovetailing labour component of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the construction of roads being executed by the R&B Department in the State.
Chairing a high level meeting here to review the progress made under PMGSY in the State, the Chief Minister asked the R&B Department to start with some pilot projects where labour component under MGNREGA would be utilized for earth work and similar other components in R&B schemes.
“This would at one hand ensure wage employment to the people in rural and remote areas and on the other reduce the cost of schemes considerably”, he said adding that this concept would be popularized in other departments like Irrigation, PHE, Power, etc in due course of time. He told the R&B to create example for these departments in this regard.
Omar Abdullah said that the concept of dovetailing and converging would have symbiotic benefits for all the stakeholders. He urged for popularizing this phenomenon in all the departments connected with construction of public infrastructure.
Taking stock of the e-tendering practice of PMGSY launched under his direction, the Chief Minister underlined its efficacy for bringing transparency and reducing the chances of malpractices. He said e-procurement is another aspect requiring proper propagation in all the departments particularly those largely connected with purchase of materials for construction purposes.
Omar Abdullah said that besides Works Department, Power and other departments should follow the practice making e-tendering and e-procurement order of their departmental functioning.
The meeting was attended by Minister of State for R&B, Javid Ahmad Dar, Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Principal Secretary R&B, K. B. Agarwal, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Sudhanshu Pandey, Commissioner Secretary Employment, Farooq Ahmad Peer, Secretary Revenue, Isfandaryar Khan, Joint Commissioner, PWD, Chief Engineers PMGSY and other officers.
The Chief Minister also direct for third party monitoring of the schemes to get independent analysis of various aspects of physical and financial achievements and other relevant factors of work done.
Matters relating to the approval of schemes to be launched under Batch-VI of Phase-VIII of PMGSY, release of funds for land acquisition, maintenance of assets, shifting of utilities and other related matters were discussed in the meeting.
Giving resume of the Prime Minister’s Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the Commissioner Secretary R&B said that under PMGSY Phase-VII as many as 1346 schemes stand sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 3580 crores covering 2010 habitations and involving construction of 7011 kilometres of roads.
He said as against the expenditure of Rs. 300 crores under PMGSY last year, the spending this year is likely to be to the tune of Rs. 700 crores. He said 32 new schemes have been identified to be taken up under Phase-VIII (Batch-VI of PMGSY) and the proposal for this is being preferred to the Government of India. These schemes involve an expenditure of Rs. 287.25 crores for construction of 267 kilometres to benefit 40707 people.
The meeting expressed satisfaction over the progress of PMGSY in the State.