Against the state average of giving 45 days of job under the 100-day job scheme, the two districts have provided 64 days of jobs.

“Apart from Purulia and Jalpaiguri, the other districts which have performed well are Birbhum (56), Burdwan (55), North 24-Parganas (54), South Dinajpur (53) and West Midnapore (52),” said Liakat Ali, Joint Secretary in State Panchayat and Rural Development department.

The government spending under the NREGA has also jumped from Rs 940.39 crore (last year) to Rs 2,110.40 crore this year with Jalpaiguri district topping the list (Rs 201.5 crore) and Howrah at the bottom of the table (Rs 14 crore).

Besides the Gorkhaland protest, Jalpaiguri is also hit by frequent bandhs called by Kamtapuris and Adivasis. “But the protestors did not hamper the NREGA work much, and villagers in remote Kalchini block, bordering Bhutan, too got jobs,” said District Magistrate Vandana Yadav.

Purulia district also provided an average of 64 days of jobs to the villagers belonging to predominantly backward classes and tribals. Around Rs 138.4 crore has been spent on wages and durable asset creation in Purulia. Projects which provided more wages and less material cost were selected here, said District Magistrate Avanindra Singh.

Maoist presence has affected eight out of the 20 blocks in Purulia where the average days of work provided was 55 days this year, up from last year’s 24 days, he said.

NREGA programmes here were meant to create assets like tanks, ponds, irrigation wells, check dams, roads, social forestry, farmland creation and wage employment to the villagers in Purulia, sources said.