Assam spent Rs 2,100 crore under MGNREGA in three years

GUWAHATI: The Assam government has spent over Rs 2,100 crore in the state between 2011-12 and 2013-14 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to generate nearly ten crore mandays.

According to reports on MGNREGA for 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 tabled in the state Assembly today, the highest amount was spent in FY'12 with Rs 748.27 crore.

In FY'13, the government spent Rs 651.53 crore for providing jobs under the ambitious scheme, the report said.

During the last financial year, total allocated funds under this scheme for the state were Rs 731.11 crore, but the government utilised Rs 700.80 crore.

In 2011-12, total mandays stood at 3.53 crore, while the government could generate 3.14 crore and 2.99 crore mandays in 2012-13 and 2013-14 fiscals respectively.

In the three years, a total of 38.45 lakh households were provided with employment opportunities under MGNREGA, the report pointed out.

The report, however, mentioned various reasons for low-performance in these years such as disparity in wages at open market and MGNREGA rate, limited working season, good harvesting season, flood, disturbances in BTAD, Dhubri and Goalpara, release of funds by the Centre in multiple tranches and engagement of officials in panchayat elections.