Two months down the line and Goan unemployed youths may still be waiting for a guaranteed job under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. But, introduced in April last, the Rural Development Agencies of both North and South districts are putting in place the logistics required to ensure the scheme takes off without much difficulty. Co-incidentally, Navelim village panchayat - which forms part of RDA Minister, Churchill Alemao's constituency, is racing against other villages in the implementation of the scheme, with the RDA, South receiving two development projects from the Panchayat body for implementation. And, if the Project Director, RDA, South, Narayan Sawant is to be believed, the Agency has prepared estimates for the development work and that it's now time for the unemployed youth from Navelim village to apply for job cards to the Panchayat. "Once the job cards are issued, the card holder can ask for a job after a period of 15 days. Unemployed youth should apply to the Panchayat body for the job cards', Sawant added. In South Goa, almost all the seven Panchayat bodies have forwarded development proposals, some of which have been returned back for corrections, while estimates of the others will be prepared in the days ahead. It is learnt that most of the proposals submitted by the Panchayat bodies relates to de-silting of water nallahs. The RDA is presently examining whether drains can be constructed under the scheme under the head flood control. Say Narayan Sawant: "A job card is literally a passport for a job under the National Employment Guarantee Scheme. Hence, unemployed youth ought to make the job cards to secure the employment'. Sawant's North Goa counterpart, Pilarnekar says that many Panchayat bodies have forwarded the development plans for the preparation of estimates. He, however, said the RDA is still trying to put all the logistics in place before actual implementation of the scheme. For instance, he said that the process of recruitment of engineers and gram sevaks and other staff required to implement the scheme is currently in progress. "Once, we complete this exercise, the scheme can take off smoothly, probably from July 1', he added.