Manipur Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (RD & PR) Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh on Wednesday had a video conferencing interaction with union minister of rural development, panchayati raj and agriculture & farming welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar.

During the video conference interaction, Biswajit was assisted by additional chief secretary M H Khan and officials of the RD & PR.

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The video conference was held along with concerned ministers of Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarkhand, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadar Nagar Havelli, Goa and Daman and Diu, Lakshwadeep and Puducherry, official sources in Imphal said.

Minister Biswajit who is also the government spokesperson, expressed his gratitude to the central ministry for clearing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme (MGNREGS) liabilities and early release of funds during the video conference.

He said that implementation of MGNREGS has already resumed in all districts of the State by strictly abiding to the Central Government’s instruction and protocol including maintenance of social distancing at work-sites.

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He said the State has achieved much in MGNREGS implementation, and added that in 2018-19, the State could achieve 100 Person Days, 160 PD in 2019-20 and is targeting 400 PD in 2021-22.

He also highlighted that under the Manipur State Rural Livelihood Mission, the State has initiated 80 works in 150 Gram Panchayats covering 284 villages by forming 1973 Self Help Groups (SHG).

The total number of household covered under the scheme in the State is 22,769.

The State RD& PR Minister also informed the Union Minister that implementation of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana is also going on smoothly.

He said the target is to provide trainings to 10,262 youths. Under the scheme, 2,221 youths have already been trained in various trades out of which

1347 job placements have also been achieved so far under the scheme.

Regarding PMAY (G) implementation, Biswajit highlighted that the Ministry has already approved 8900 units for 2019-20 and 15842 units for 2020-21 for the State.

He urged the Union Minister to release the first installation of funds for the scheme so that the State could commence work at the earliest.