Building Rural Sikkim


The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA) aims to provide 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household demanding it. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, was always concerned about rural India's poverty and living conditions. His pet phrase was, "India lives in villages".

Similarly, "Sikkim also lives in villages".

It was in fitness of things that the popular flagship programme National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was renamed after Mahatma Gandhi. In a commemorative function at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on 2nd October, 2009, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said that the government move to rename the NREGA is only a "humble tribute" to the Father of the Nation on his 140th birth anniversary.
The greatest strength of democracy is that, under this programme, the people are the masters of the destiny and also of their own developmental works. This is the principle of "Swaraj" or "self rule" that Mahatma Gandhi had always cherished. MGNREGA is currently in its 4th year of implementation in Sikkim. This Scheme has been universalized and is operational in all the 163 Gram Panchayats of the State. The Scheme has been able to put money in the hands of the poorest of the poor on a scale that is unprecedented.

During the last financial year (2008-09), 52,000 (of the total 80,000) rural households (mostly women) participated in this program. The program attracted not only the 19,235 rural poor but also the 32,765 APL families. Wage payment to the tune of Rs.25 crore was released to them, creating a multiplier effect and stimulating the rural economy.

MGNREGA was able to dignify labour work in the villages, and provide purchasing power among the rural household. When these poor households spend this additional money, they create a demand for commodities. The production of these commodities, in turn, creates demand for capital raw materials and workers. This demand stimulating process is called the multiplier. The plan of action this year is to shift the emphasis to those activities that enhance “rural household incomes”. If implemented in true sense by focusing on strengthening rural livelihood, this is an historic opportunity to transform rural Sikkim sustainably like never before.
In order to ensure transparency, the wage payment was routed through 42,000 newly opened bank and post office accounts. The muster rolls were also read out in the Gram Sabha in Social Audits conducted by reputed NGOs in all the villages. A grievance redressal mechanism has also been established along with transparent material purchase norms and a toll free helpline 7979 is operational. The works to be taken up in the village are proposed by the Gram Sabha, estimate is done by the Block office, technical sanctions are given at the District level and financial sanctions by the Zilla Panchayat. No contractors or middle men are permitted and 100% implementation of works is by the Gram Panchayat.

The MGNREGA, a wage employment guarantee programme, has received an unparalleled public response and more than 40,000 rural households are currently participating in this programme. This translates to a wage payment of Rs 40 lakh daily to rural Sikkim. Recently Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has approved an 83% hike in central release for MGNREGS-Sikkim for 2009-10 based on a very positive, independent performance evaluation by IIM-Shillong. The total budget for the State is to the tune of Rs 75 crore and the Central share of Rs 54 crore has already been released in 15 installments.

Sikkim is the only state in the country where 100% implementation of MGNREGA is being done by Gram Panchayats. The average outlay for a GPU is about Rs 40 lakh annually. MGNREGS has helped in strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions by bringing real democracy to the grassroots, and facilitated the transformation from Contractor Raj to Panchayati Raj.

Also development of critical springs under the banner of "Dhara Vikas" (Spring-shed Development) under MGNREGA has also been initiated. Development of the spring­shed will be taken up with soil moisture conservation works like digging staggered trenches and pits along contours, gully plugging, bunding of terraces and making them inward sloping, de-silting of existing, dried up ponds and lakes. Vegetative measures will include plantation of low water demanding and shallow-rooted grass/shrubs/trees. Currently MGNREGA-Dhara Vikas works on a pilot basis are underway to revive 3 springs in the South and East districts.

In order to improve the technical management of this programme, additional technical manpower on contractual basis have been recently appointed. Amongst the new initiatives, Village Service Centers (Gram Seva Kendra) at the GPUs level which will function as a MGNREGA Village Office will soon be created. The budget for each of these centers will be Rs 10 lakh each, and the work will be started from April, 2010

. They will be developed as an extension of the existing Gram Prashashan Kendras or will be located in the immediate vicinity. An SMS based, micro-monitoring system will also soon be put in place which will enable the progress at the Gram Panchayat Ward level to be recorded on a weekly basis. This will enable near real time progress reporting at the micro level and corrective action can be taken much faster.

SOURCE:SIKKIM REPORTER