Kurnool: Clear MGNREGS pending bills, demands TDP

Kurnool: Demanding the government to release the pending bills pertaining to the works done under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the TDP members on Monday staged rallies and protests across the mandal headquarters in the district.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Kurnool Parliamentary president Somisetty Venkateswarlu said that during the TDP rule, the government sanctioned various works worth Rs 4,200 crores under MGNREG Scheme.

Recalling the various works taken up by using the sanctioned amount, Venkateswarlu said that an amount of Rs 35.64 lakh has been spent on construction of latrines in rural areas and Rs 27 lakh used for LED lights in the gram panchayats.

In addition to this, under Neeru-Chettu 7 lakh acres of ayacut were streamlined by providing water, constructed 4,950 panchayat bhavans, developed 6,500 grave yards, laid concrete roads in a stretch of 24,000 kms at a cost of Rs 5,694 crore, gravel roads laid in a stretch of 16,000 kms at a cost of Rs 1,673.99 crore, sunk 6,15,809 farm ponds, constructed Anganwadi centres at a cost of Rs 187.96 crore and build manure manufacturing units from waste at a cost of Rs 345.25 crore, he added.

He said the YSRCP-led government has issued a GO No 350 and stopped 7,782 works worth Rs 3,118 crore. Apart from the GO, the government also issued a memo no 1060306/PR.11/J1/2019 stating that amount would be paid to the works completed after June 1, 2019.

This is totally against the MGNREGA Act 2005, he said and added several petty contractors have done the work by borrowing money from the moneylenders. With the government decision, the contractors were in neck deep troubles and were unable to repay the amount.

TDP leader said that the GO and memos issued by the YSRCP government are nothing but to harass the contractors. He added that Konda Reddy, a resident of Gajulapalli committed suicide due to pressure exerted by the moneylenders.

Even after the court's orders, the Jagan government was resorting delaying tactics in the payment of amount in the name of vigilance enquiry, stated Somi Shetty. He urged the government to immediately clear all the pending bills to the contractors with 12 per cent interest according to 2005 MGNREGA Act. Later the party leaders gave a representation to the Kurnool MPDO Bhaskar Naidu.

Similarly, the former MLAs of Banaganapalle, BC Janardhan Reddy, Meenakshi Naidu of Adoni and others also staged protests in front of MPDO offices and gave representations in their respective areas.