NREGA works resumed in Vizianagaram district

Vizianagaram: After a gap of one month, the job cardholders of MGNREGA have started working again. The government has given relaxation for the works recently and the workers have been attending for works. Around 1.5 lakh workers participated in the works on Monday as against the expectation of one lakh workers. The district administration is taking care of these workers and advised the concerned officers to maintain social distance in the work places.

Actually around 4 lakh job cards were issued in this district and generally 3.5 lakh people used to participate in various works relating to roads and de-silting of tanks. However, the entire works were stalled due to lockdown for the past one month and the card holders lost their income and landed in financial crisis.

The wages getting through NREGA works are much helpful to the people of rural areas during summer. Usually they will have no income after the completion of Kharif harvest and NREGA will be the only income source for them. But due to lockdown the workers are forced to remain in their homes and as a result, they lost the financial support.

Now, the government has given some relaxation for agriculture works and NREGA works. This district has no positive Corona cases and the suspicious people coming from other states are being identified and sent to quarantine centres. As a result, the people of this district are not scared of Corona and coming out of their homes to join in various works.

A Nageswara Rao, project director of District Water Management Agency said, "We are encouraging the job card holders to participate in works. We are ensuring steps to maintain social distance and wearing of masks during work. Our district is in green zone and we need not worry. On Monday, 1.5 lakhs workers joined in works and on Tuesday the number was 1.75 lakhs. The number would gradually increase in the days to come."

K Lakshmi of Ramavaram village said, "We have lost income of one month due to lockdown and now again we started attending works. Unless we have the NREGA work, we cannot maintain our family and meet the expenditure."