Neglect work, take a pay cut

KORAPUT: The district administration has decided to withhold salaries of junior engineers (JEs) and gram panchayat technical assistants (GPTAs), who have failed to utilize 60% of the funds allocated to them under centrally-sponsored Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The job scheme assures 100 days of employment to villagers in rural areas."We are committed to creating more jobs in rural Koraput. This move is an effort in that direction," collector (Koraput) Yamini Sarangi said on Wednesday.
The administration on Tuesday reviewed implementation of the scheme in 14 blocks. "It was found that Koraput, Jeypore and Semiliguda blocks had utilized only 30% of the MGNREGS funds. A directive has been issued to withhold salaries of JEs and GPTAs of these three blocks," the collector said.
Bandhugaon and Narayanpatna blocks, where development had taken a beating in the past few years due to Maoist violence, have utilized 55% and 47% of the funds respectively, she added.
Official sources said the district targets to spend Rs 95 crore by creating 33 lakh man-days during this financial year. It has spent around Rs 20 crore till July-end and generated eight lakh man-days.
"In April and May, the district had utilized around Rs 8 crore. But with constant monitoring, we could take it to Rs 12 crore in June and July. We are hopeful of achieving the target by the financial year-end," she said.