Centre has permitted the states to deploy two engineers per 6,000 people of rural households to meet the shortage of key technical staff needed for effective implementation of the job guarantee scheme NREGA.<br/><br/>For the north-eastern states and hill states like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal, the Rural Development Ministry has allowed the state governments to deploy two engineers per 3,000 population of rural households.<br/><br/>In a letter to all the state governments and Union Territory administration, the Rural Development Ministry has said that the expenditure on the deployment of engineers shall be met out of the component of administrative expenditure.<br/><br/>The ministry recently permitted the states to use 6 per cent of NREGA funds to meet their administrative expenditure incurred on the implementation of the programme.