Government struggles to create rural jobs

 Recent report has revealed that about 75,000 cardholders could be engaged till May 2 in this fiscal and total of 11,27,219 man-days were created

Pranesh Sarkar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   04.05.23  : The Mamata Banerjee government's plan to generate employment for MGNREGA job cardholders in Bengal is yet to derive the desired results as a majority of state government departments are struggling to initiate labor-intensive projects because of the lack of funds.

A recent report on the jobs generated by the departments has revealed that about 75,000 cardholders could be engaged till May 2 in this fiscal and a total of 11,27,219 man-days were created.

“The figures suggest that the progress is not at all satisfactory under the initiative to provide jobs to those who used to depend on the 100-day rural employment guarantee scheme to earn their livelihood," said a source.

The state has about 1.4 crore active job cardholders. 

"As of now, the numbers look grim.... But one should also remember that the whole year is ahead and the government is determined to create jobs and that's why the departments have been asked to come forward and engage job cardholders in large numbers in their schemes,” said a bureaucrat.

In 2021, a total of 1.18 crore job cardholders had worked under the 100-day employment scheme. In 2022, 1.11 crore job cardholders had availed themselves of the MGNREGA.

“So, it is clear that the government has to go a long way to reach all job cardholders in the state,” said an official.  

A closer look at the report reveals that the majority of the departments, which carry out development plans, could not initiate enough projects to engage job cardholders.

Out of a total of 4,082 projects, where job cardholders were engaged, the panchayat department alone initiated 4,015 schemes under the Pathasree programme. But departments like agriculture, forest, municipal affairs and urban development, irrigation and public works which have scope to initiate labour-intensive schemes could not start enough schemes.

“Agriculture department has initiated 16 schemes and the forest department has started 14 schemes. But the departments of public works and irrigation could initiate one and two schemes, respectively. This is an area of concern as the majority of the departments, which have the potential to engage more job cardholders, could not initiate enough schemes,” said a source.

An official explained that the panchayat department could generate 4,000-odd schemes as it was allotted a sum of Rs 3,000 crore to undertake the Pathasree programme under which 12,000 rural roads will be either laid or repaired.

“But all other departments don’t have enough funds to initiate large projects. This is why many other departments could not engage morejob cardholders,” said the official. 

While the officials are confident that the rate of jobcreation would go up in the coming months, the state government — which has to finance the projects as the Centre has stopped the release of MGNREGA funds since2022 alleging anomalies— cannot wait as rural polls are nearing. 

Crores of people used to depend on the MGNREGA to earn their livelihood. The absence of funds under the scheme in the past year hit these people as well as the rural economy hard.

The target of the state was to reach these people with some days of work to give them relief. This would have helped the ruling party reap benefits in the rural polls.