The Union government announced a comprehensive rural development initiative to come into effect from July one and the meeting was chaired by Union Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He said the plan aims to ensure a smooth, worker?centric transition and stressed that not a single worker should remain without work. The Centre has allocated Rs 300 billion (bn) under MGNREGA and released an interim allocation of Rs 956.92 bn, taking the total allocation to Rs 1,256.92 bn. He said the funds will reach nearly 280,000 Gram Panchayats and that each Panchayat will receive several hundred thousand rupees to be used for development works identified under the Act. The minister urged states to accord advance approvals to a sufficient number of works so that implementation can begin rapidly from July one. He directed that there should be no reduction or disruption in employment generation and wage payments under MGNREGA until the new framework is fully operational. He noted progress on digital and administrative preparedness, citing direct benefit transfers, SMS?based information systems, e?KYC and face authentication as key enablers of the transition. Twenty-six states have already made budgetary provisions, while Jharkhand, Karnataka, Telangana and Mizoram were urged to complete the process at the earliest and he said he would write to the chief ministers of those states. States were asked to issue notifications, declare agricultural peak seasons, ensure 100 per cent e?KYC and organise capacity building and awareness programmes at district and block levels. The interim allocations to states total Rs 925.50 bn, to union territories Rs 12.92 bn and Rs 18.51 bn has been earmarked for central administration and social audit, taking the interim amount to Rs 956.92 bn. The largest allocations include Uttar Pradesh Rs 97.21 bn, West Bengal Rs 85.08 bn and Tamil Nadu Rs 75.85 bn, while smaller allocations were made for Union Territories. The minister invited all states to the National Rural Development Conference at the PUSA Institute on June 28 and 29 to finalise implementation arrangements.