Anantapur tops in creating mandays for NREGS workers
District Collector Gandham Chandrudu giving coconut water to an NREGS woman worker during his visit to field in Anantapur on Saturday
Anantapur: The NREGS programme implemented by the District Water Management Agency (DWMA) has created a record by achieving 1 crore mandays in 28 days, thereby occupying top place in the country. The programme implementation being monitored by District Collector Gandham Chandrudu and executed by DWMA Project Director Venugopala Reddy has achieved what was an impossible feat amidst the corona pandemic.
Interacting with the NREGS workers at Bandlapalle village in Narpala mandal, the Collector said that everyday DWMA succeeded in creating 4.60 lakh mandays per day and by doing so, has created a record by standing first in the country. Every day Rs 10 crore of wages is being credited in the beneficiaries' bank accounts and that explains the success and the magnitude of mandays created for the NREGS workers.
NREGS work to job cardholders appears to be a major boost to the rural workers, who returned from metro cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kerala states as complete lockdown has been imposed in the neighbouring Karnataka state. Industries in the district have been lockdown due to the imposition of lockdown from 12 pm in the district every day.
Finding no avenues of work from any quarters, the NREGS work turned out to be an oasis in a desert. The district administration is also implementing the vaccination programme for all NREGS workers. The district administration is seeing to it that both the agriculture activity and NREGS works are not hampered by the semi-lockdown in the district.
The Collector also interacted with Peddakka, an NREGS worker, who received the first job card from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 when it was launched in the district. She told the Collector that ever since the launch of the scheme, the fear of worklessness staring at them disappeared.
The scheme gave hope to the rural workers that even in the worst times one can bank upon the NREGS work, which means that wages are assured for them on any given day.
The scheme triggered a wages revolution in the non-NREGS sector and demand for wage labourers propped up and increased wages to astronomical heights.
Peddakka told The Hans India that the NREGS work helped her to educate her children, pay off debts and get their children married besides ensuring food to the family every day. She urged the government to increase workdays based on demand. She opined the scheme improved the lot of rural masses.