New Delhi [India], March 31 (ANI/Target Media): The multiple waves of COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent socio-economic distress have affected everyone in ways more than one. The impact has been acute for marginalised communities who had to suffer loss of livelihoods and incomes. Countless families had to return from their cities of work to their native villages, only to find themselves vulnerable still. To make ends meet, they have had to compromise on their family's nutrition and health and their children's education.

Kolkata Mar 23 PTI West Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Pulak Roy on Wednesday alleged in the assembly that the state had received no funds from the Centre for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act MGNREGA since December last yearThe MGNREGA was enacted to provide at least 100 days of employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers to do unskilled manual workThe central government had not released funds for the 100 days work to West Bengal since December 2021 the burden which is borne by the state The state is also not getting money under the housing scheme from the Centre Roy saidSpeaking during the passage of budgetary demand for the department the minister asserted that the opposition BJP is trying to thwart progress and development of the states rural area by frequently writing letters to the CentreHe however did not elaborate on the matterPanchayats had been converted to party offices during the 34 years of Left Front rule and they started functioning in a proper manner only after the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011 Roy claimedAllowances of the members of gram panchayats panchayat samitis and zilla parishads have been increased during the TMC regime he saidDuring the last financial year a total of 36259 kilometres of road were built in the state under the Gram Sadak Yojana and 56 bridges are now under construction Roy addedMinister of state of the department Becharam Manna said more than one lakh kilometres of rural road had been built in the state since 2011An amount of Rs 25170 crore had been passed for the department during 2022-23The house also passed a budgetary grant of Rs 3900 crore for the public health engineering departmentEarlier during the Question Hour Roy said that the government has set a target of providing potable drinking water to entire rural Bengal by 2024He said the state had promoted 935 lakh women self-help groups SHGs till December 2021Roy criticised nationalised banks for allegedly not providing credit to the SHGs PTI dc NN NN

Ahmedabad Mar 19 PTI The Gujarat government on Saturday launched the fifth phase of its Sujalam Sufalam Jal Abhiyan a water conservation campaign from Kolavada village in Gandhinagar district Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel formally launched the project with the deepening of a lake in the village with the state aiming to carry out around 13000 water conservation works by May 31 This year the projects are estimated to increase the states water storage capacity by 15000 lakh cubic feet and provide more than 25 lakh mandays of employment to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act MGNREGA a release issued by the Chief Ministers Office CMO stated The projects include deepening of lakes desilting of check dams and reservoirs cleaning and revitalisation of monsoon rivers repairing and construction of check dams it said Since the campaigns inception in 2018 at least 21402 lakes have been deepened and constructed 1204 check dams have been built and 50353 km of canals and water streams have been cleaned the release said As a result the total water storage capacity has increased by 61781 lakh cubic feet and 15693 lakh man-days employment was generated it saidThe chief minister said the project is vital to make Gujarat self-reliant in terms of water conservation The state government is constantly aware of water management plans to ensure that people dont face water problemsPatel also expressed his commitment to make tap water available to every household in the state by the end of the year PTI KA ARU ARU