The rural development department of Tripura’s BJP-Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) government has won 13 national awards under four categories for successful implementation of flagship schemes.

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday at the civil secretariat, deputy chief minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who also holds the rural development portfolio, said, “The rural development department of our government has won 13 national awards under 4 categories for successful implementation of flagship schemes of the ministry of rural development for the financial year 2018-2019.”

He said under MGNREGA, the state has secured the first rank under hilly states for implementation of good governance initiatives and came second under hilly states for work completion rate categories.

“We are trying to give a new direction to MGNREGA. When we assumed office in March 2018, not a single MGNREGA project was ongoing in the state. It was stopped and we started it again from June 2018,” he told reporters.

Dev Varma claimed that earlier MGNREGA was used as a “political weapon” but after the new BJP-IPFT government is using the scheme for the development of the state.

“We are just trying to give a new aim or direction to the scheme. After our new government was formed, the work speed and the output of MGNREGA has increased. Around 46.5 per cent man-days was created during 2018-19 whereas in 2017-2018, man-days was 34 per cent which was very poor. We recently held a meeting with all the eight district magistrates and decided to create sustainable assets in eight rural areas of the state,” the deputy chief minister said.

The state government has received seven awards under MGNREGA in which it secured the first rank under hilly states for implementation of good governance initiatives. The state has also received one award under National Rural Livelihood Mission, one award under Deen Dayal Upadhayay Gramin Kaushal Yojona (DDU-GKY) and four awards under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojona-Gramin.

Replying to an allegation made by the CPM that there are no projects or food in the rural hamlets, the deputy chief minister said during the Left Front rule, they received a huge amount of money but no such man-day was generated under MGNREGA.

“Around 79 percent work under MGNERA is going on in and around ADC areas. The allegations are totally false,” he said.