Mumbai: Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme Minister Bharat Gogawale has directed officials to prioritise farm and access road works under the Matoshri Gram Samruddhi Scheme to accelerate rural employment generation across the state.
Chairing a departmental review meeting at Mantralaya, Gogawale reviewed the implementation of MGNREGA and the Matoshri Gram Samruddhi Yojana, focusing on employment generation, infrastructure support for farmers and rural development. Officials discussed district-wise progress of ongoing works, the number of registered labourers, pending approvals, utilisation of funds and the status of farm and access road projects.
The minister clarified that although the Centre has passed the V.B.G. Ram Ji Act 2025, it has not yet come into force and the MGNREGA scheme continues to operate under the existing system. He said there is currently no deadline fixed by the Centre for MGNREGA works and directed officials to complete all projects within stipulated norms and timelines.
Calling farm and access roads a priority initiative of the state government, Gogawale instructed authorities to speed up implementation at the field level. He said a large number of such projects had been approved based on demands from local representatives and gram panchayats.
The minister also directed officials to immediately prepare estimates for sanctioned works, obtain technical and administrative approvals, generate work codes and issue work commencement orders along with attendance sheets. Pending attendance records for ongoing works should also be cleared quickly and payments uploaded on the NREGASoft system without delay, he said.
Gogawale further said that with the Centre allowing gram panchayats to undertake more than 20 works with district collectors’ approval, priority should be given to state-approved farm and access road projects. In view of a possible El Niño situation, he stressed the need to generate large-scale rural employment through such works.
Employment Guarantee Scheme Department Secretary Appasaheb Dhulaj and other senior officials were present at the meeting.
