By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAY 28, 2017: THE Union Rural Development Minister, Mr Narendra Singh Tomar, has claimed that the various schemes of the Centre such as MGNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna, Grameen (PMAY-G) and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) have created employment opportunities of more than 813 crore person days during the last three years (2014-17). He said that while 636.78 crore person days were generated under MGNEREGA, about 78 crore person days under PMGSY and 99 crore person days under PMAY. Apart from this, under Deen Dayal Upadhyay-Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDY-GKY), 86,120 candidates were trained in the year 2014-15 and 54,196 got jobs. Similarly, in 2015-16, about one lakh thirty-five thousand candidates were placed after the skill training, while in 2016-17, the number of candidates getting placement is 84,900.

Mr Tomar said that in the current year, the Ministry of Rural Development proposes to train 5 lakh candidates with an assured placement of over 70 percent of these youth in Wage and Self Help employment programmes. He said that Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETIs) trained 4 lakh rural youth in 2016-17 for Self Employment.

The Minister said that under MGNREGA during FY 2016-17, more than 1.23 crore assets have been geo tagged and placed in public domain and about 96% of wage payments were electronically credited into the accounts of the workers through DBT system. So far, 8.73 crore Aadhar number of workers have been seeded in NREGASoft (MIS) and 4.73 have been enabled for Aadhar Based Payment with their consent. He added that Job Card verification/updation was taken on priority basis during FY 2016-17 and more than 1 crore Job Cards have been deleted after verification.

On the subject of PMAY-G, Mr Tomar said that in line with the government’s stated objective of “Housing for All” by 2022, the Government intends to provide houses to 1 crore poor people by 2019 in rural areas. A total of 34.82 lakh houses have been constructed during 2014-15 to 2015-16, against a target of 45.98 lakh houses under the erstwhile scheme of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY). During 2016-17, a total of 32.14 lakh houses have been completed with an expenditure of Rs. 16,074 crore under the revamped scheme PMAY-G.

On PMGSY, the Minister said that the pace of construction of road has reached a record of 130 kms. per day, which is the highest average annual construction rate, in the last 7 years, with a record 47,447 kms of PMGSY roads constructed during 2016-17 thereby connecting 11,641 habitations, which implies providing connectivity of an average of 32 habitations every day, the highest ever in the last 7 years. He said, during 2016-17, “Road Connectivity project in LWE Affected Areas” has been launched for construction of all-weather roads in 9 LWE states in 44 worst affected LWE districts and adjoining districts with estimated cost of Rs 11,725 crore. This would be completed by March, 2020.