New Delhi: Post offices across the country have disbursed Rs.29 billion as wages to the beneficiaries of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the government said.

Almost 70,000 post offices from 21 states, including head post offices, sub-post offices and branch post offices, have disbursed the wages, a government statement said.

The NREG scheme is intended to ensure a minimum of 100 days' employment in a year to the poorest of the poor in the country.

The scheme provides employment through projects for building social and economic infrastructure in rural areas.

An important concern of the NREG scheme is to ensure payment to real beneficiaries expeditiously and correctly and to avoid leakage to middlemen.

To address this concern, the government decided to pay wages to workers only through savings accounts in their names at state-owned banks or post offices.

The department of posts in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is working towards establishing an electronic system for wage payments, the statement added.

The electronic system, expected to be operational by December 2008, will be implemented on a pilot basis in selected districts of Orissa, it said.