Rural development minister Nitish Mishra (centre) inaugurates the workshop on rural development, sanitation and potable water, in Patna on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 4: The state government has decided to double the man-days from 25 to 50 in the next financial year to catch up with other states in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), rural development minister Nitish Mishra said today.

Inaugurating a state-level workshop on “Rural-development — MNREGA, sanitation and potable water”, Mishra said: “At present, we are providing 25 days of work per person every year. This is too little in comparison to other states. From April 1, the number of days will be doubled to completely utilise the approved budget of Rs 4,000 crore under the scheme.”

Under MNREGA, the below poverty line people of panchayats are entitled to 100 days of employment every year.

Out of 1.29 crore job-card holders under MNREGA, the state government could provide employment to only 40 lakh persons this fiscal. “We could spend just Rs 2,000 crore of the total funds allotted,” said Mishra.

S.K. Malviya, the director of the directorate of field publicity under the Union information and broadcasting ministry, said states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh were spending about Rs 100 crore a year under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in every district. In Bihar, the figure stood at Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore per district.

The national average of man-days, defined as a unit of one day’s work by one person, is 67. It stood at 25 in Bihar, Malviya added.

Mishra said the workshop has been organised to create awareness in 20 blocks of five districts — Madhubani, Darbhanga, East Champaran, Araria and Nalanda — on sanitation, MNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana.

“These schemes could not take off in a number of districts because of lack of awareness about the different schemes,” he said.

Malviya said: “Our team will visit each village in 20 blocks of the five districts in Bihar with a 15-point questionnaire to get the feedback from people regarding the implementation of these programmes.”

To sensitise people about sanitation, the government has directed the block development officers to sanction funds for the construction of toilets under the Indira Awas Yojana scheme from the next fiscal.

Malviya said an extensive public campaign has been launched by the Union information and broadcasting ministry at the request of the Union rural development ministry to make people aware of different schemes.