Bhopal, Feb 4: National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme would be implemented in rest of 17 districts of Madhya Pradesh from April 1. Preliminary arrangements for implementing the scheme are on in the concerned districts. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which was implemented exactly two years ago, has provided employment to 34 lakh eight thousand families at a cost of Rs 1737 crore 24 lakh. At present the scheme is being implemented in 31 districts of Madhya Pradesh. Under the scheme the state has received Rs 2591 crore 17 lakh so far and 1667 lakh 33 thousand mandays of employment has been generated. In Madhya Pradesh 57 thousand 450 works have been completed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme while one lakh 42 thousand 705 works are under progress.

Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Rustam Singh informed that under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme-MP, works under the first phase were undertaken two years ago in 18 districts including Jhabua, Mandla, Umaria, Shahdol, Badwani, Khargone, Shivpuri, Sidhi, Tikamgarh, Balaghat, Chhatarpur, Betul, Khandwa, Sheopur, Dhar, Seoni, Satna and Dindori. In the second phase the scheme was implemented in 13 more districts including Guna, Ashok Nagar, Rajgarh, Datia, Rewa, Panna, Damoh, Katni, Chhindwara, Anup Pur, Burhanpur, Harda and Dewas.

Rustam Singh said that under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme funds to the tune of Rs 1914.43 crore were received under the first phase out of which Rs 1526.37 crore has been spent so far. For the first phase Rs 1462.64 crore and Rs 146.41 crore was received respectively from the Union and state governments. Out of total approved works 55 thousand 541 have been completed while one lakh 13 thousand 719 works are under progress. Through these works, 1492.28 mandays of employment have been generated.

In the second phase of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme-MP, Rs 676.73 crore was received out of which Rs 210.87 crore has been spent so far. Out of the total works approved for this phase one thousand 909 have been completed while 28 thousand 987 are under progress. Through these works174.95 mandays of employment have been generated and employment. The scheme to be implemented in rest of 17 districts from April 1, 2008. These 17 districts are Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Sagar, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Ratlam, Ujjain, Shajapur, Indore, Vidisha, Bhopal, Sehore, Raisen, Hoshangabad, Jabalpur and Narsinghpur.