AGARTALA, August 6 (TIWN): In view of massive irregularity towards the wage payment to the REGA workers in Tripura under the centrally sponsored scheme of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) the state Rural Development (RD) department had sought centre’s intervention towards regularising the fund flow due to the lack of which the entire payment has been delayed, said RD Minister Naresh Jamatia on Wednesday.Jamatia along with three Tripura MP had met Union Minister for RD Birendar Singh at New Delhi on Tuesday centring the problems facing by the state REGA workers. The main problem for the delay of the payment is because of the irregular fund flow by the centre, said Jamatia talking to the newsmen at the secretariat holding a press conference on Wednesday.Jamatia said, “During the month of May and June this year no wage has been credited to the abnk accounts of the REGA workers and tom fill the gap the RD department had taken a loan of Rs. 60 crore from the state government.”

However, despite the Left ruled Tripura topped in REGA implementation in the entire nation for the last 5 financial year, the irregular fund flow by the centre has hit the state very badly, in view of which the state RD Minister had sought centre’s intervention to restore the problem.

“Currently Rs. 55, 47, 180, 000 remained pending with the central govt and the state is yet to get the amount under the REGA scheme,” Jamatia told reporters. Adding to that he said at present the state had managed to create around 17 mandays in an average which is comparatively higher than the previous year.

Besides, Jamatia said, “We managed to credit wage on 90 per cent of the bank accounts of REGA workers of the 12000 pending Fund Transfer Order (FTO) so far.” He also said that on being asked the Union Minister had clarified that the pending FTO is not only the problem of Tripura but also the problem of other states across the nation.

On being asked, Jamatia said that so far the state had received Rs. 499, 24, 65, 000 from the centre towards implementing the centrally sponsored MGNREGA scheme in Tripura.

The state RD Minister meeting the Union Minister had also demanded to keep National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) in 24 hours service mode. Besides other certain demands were also raised during the meeting, he said.

Jamatia in view of the irregular fund transfer through the Public Fund Management System (PFMS) said while meeting with the Union Minister it has been learnt that there is a lack of understanding between the Union Finance Department and the RD department as the RD secretary had said PFM system was mandated by the Finance department.

According to the new rules under the MGNREGA Scheme and as per the PFMS the fund is now directly transferred to the Mumbai based SBI Corporate office from where the wages are being credited to the individual bank accounts of the REGA workers across the nation.

Jamatia referring to the last incident took place in Tripura over the delay of the REGA payment said such a situation is talking a chance yet again over the same issue as the Mumbai SBI branch has been delaying the payment.

Adding to that Jamatia said, “For the Financial Year (FY) 2015-16 the centre had approved Rs. 1500 crore for REGA work in Tripura amongst which Rs. 185 crore has been released so far.” In view of which and to ensure timely payment the last cabinet meeting had decided that there is a need to simplify the PFMS.