IMPHAL, OCTOBER 20: Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh on Thursday inaugurated the newly-built State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), Complex besides opening the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA Mela-2016 at Porompat in Imphal East district.
Speaking during the occasion of the first ever MGNREGA Mela in the state, the chief minister said that the government will be considering revision of honorarium of the Gram Panchayat, Zilla Parishad and District Council members. It was last revised in 2005.
Ibobi said that the MGNREGA was first launched in the country in 2006 in which Tamenglong district of Manipur also joined.
Now the Act has been implemented in the entire state covering all the nine districts. By taking up water harvesting along with tree plantation etc. with this scheme we can also face the climate change, he said.
Ibobi also reacted to Nagaland CM Zeliang’s statement which was made on Wednesday at Yaikongpao village. The Manipur CM opined that ‘one should not comment to create misunderstanding in the region.’ Manipur has a separate history and it was not a part of India not to speak of north east region whereas Nagaland was a part of Assam, he said.
Manipur merged (in 1949) two years after India become Independent on August 15, 1947. ‘One should know the history of Manipur,’ said Ibobi. He explained that he ‘did not want to react to statements of Zeliang.’
On Wednesday, Zeliang, who was speaking at a conference of Naga village authorities, alleged that the areas inhabited by the Naga villages were never parts of the Meitei kingdom; they were brought within the geographical boundary of Manipur under the British regime for their administrative convenience.
Also, Manipur’s Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Minister M Okendro Singh who presided over the function said that there were more than 5 lakh job card-holders in the state, benefiting around Rs 4.8 lakh families. He said that the state government was targeting to provide 70 to 80 per cent man-days under MGNREGA in the year 2016-17.
Singh said further that to undertake construction of bridges and roads under the PMGSY scheme, a Rural Engineering department was instituted from this year under the Rural Development & Panchayati Raj. It is now fully-functional, he said.
This department will take up a total of 392 works under PMGSY in both hill and valley for which government of India has sanctioned around Rs 2500 crores, he said and appealed to all to cooperate.
As a part of the function, best performing Gram Panchayats and village authorities of the 9 districts of Manipur were given an award. The award comprised a memento, a citation and cash prize.
Md Amin Shah, the parliamentary secretary for MOBC & SC, and Sumant Singh, secretary for RD & PR attended the function as the guests of honour.
