While MGNREGA implementation was planned in a big way in Odisha, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be the biggest hurdle in this regard, admit officials.
A large number of field functionaries are now affected by Covid-19, for which monitoring of the massive programme is a Herculean task as there are hardly any official left in gram panchayat level free from virus attack.Secondly, people are scared to go out to work as they are apprehensive about the dreaded disease. Now, villagers are scared to move to field as they are highly apprehensive of virus attack, say officials.
It was expected that MGNREGA would play an important role in making sure that workers find jobs and contribute in improving rural economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, it is the virus which has turned out to be a major roadblock for the major employment-providing programme.
The Department of Panchayati Raj had planned for generating 200 million person days during 2020-21 as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had given thrust on creating job opportunities for the migrant labourers who returned from other States.
The State Government planned to spend Rs 6,640 crore under MGNREGA to generate employment through sectors like agriculture, fisheries and animal resources, forest and other areas.
A recent review on spending in the Government departments reveals poor spending in the development sector and concerns are raised over the issue as rural economy is facing a downturn.The Programme expenditure as percentage of Budget provision was 19.38% till August 31, 2020 as compared to 23.27% during the corresponding period of previous year. But there is a decrease in expenditure by 5.13% against a 13.92% increase in Budget provision.
The MGNREGA spending is also poor as line departments have failed to implement the programme and monitoring has taken a backseat with Panchayat Extension Officers (PEOs), Junior Engineers and Assistant Engineers and other staffs at the block level are largely affected by Covid-19.
While PEOs played a major role in gram panchayats in handling Covid-19 like ASHA Workers and faced wrath of the virus in a big way.
Large numbers of field functionaries are now affected by the virus and unable to join Government offices. This is the hard reality, some of the district Collectors admit.
The Department of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water authorities are worried over such a situation as many districts are reporting poor implementation of MGNREGA due to double whammy of reluctance of the people to go for work and sickness of field officers due to the dreaded disease.
While during rainy season, MGNREGA work slows down, it is likely to pick up after October.
However, with more and more field functionaries being affected by the virus, monitoring of the job-providing programme will be a major challenge, officials admit.
