Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is one of the world’s largest social protection initiatives taken by the government of India to provide legal guarantee of work to the rural masses. Basing upon the secondary data for last five years, this study is an attempt to examine the operation of the vital provisions of the Act such as employment on demand, completion of 100 days of guaranteed work, minimum one third of employment to women and financial performance with respect to wage expenditure in Deogaon block of Bolangir district, a most backward region of Western Odisha.. The analysis of data revealed that an average of 81% of house hold provided employment on demand with very poor performance of completion of minimum days of work. The employment towards women beneficiaries also found much below than the provisions of the act during the first three years under study. However, the wage material ratio of 60:40 has been maintained in all the years in Deogaon block.