Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
More than 15,214 projects under the Employment Guarantee Scheme, approved three years ago, remain incomplete in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. Despite clear orders from District Collector Dileep Swami to finish the work by January 2025, the deadline has been missed, leaving thousands of rural development projects in limbo. Authorities now estimate that the work will be completed by March.
The Employment Guarantee Scheme covers a wide range of projects, including irrigation wells, tree plantations, farm ponds, rural housing, cement roads, and stream widening. Various government agencies, including Gram Panchayats, Agriculture, Sericulture, Social Forestry, Public Works, Zilla Parishad Construction, Zilla Parishad Irrigation, and the Forest Department, are responsible for executing these works.
According to official records, the district has undertaken 1.49 lakh projects under the scheme in the last nine years. However, a review meeting in December 2024 revealed alarming figures—more than 77,000 projects initiated since 2017 remain incomplete. Additionally, nearly 15,000 works approved before 2021-22 are still pending. Following this, the collector instructed officials to expedite completion by January 2025, but the progress has been slow.
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Pending works by Taluka
Paithan – 4,524
Phulambri – 2,276
Gangapur – 1,946
Vaijapur – 1,728
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar – 1,806
Kannad – 1,428
Sillod – 533
Khultabad – 492
Soygaon – 481
Total: 15,214