Anantapur stands second in state in payment of NREGS wages

Anantapur: The district stands second after Visakhapatnam on payment of wages for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) labourers including material component which is Rs 545.64 crore as on March 31, 2017.

While Visakhapatnam gained the status by spending Rs 100 crore more and engaging labourers in multiple works, the district spent the staggering amount on only digging of more than 80,000 farm ponds, the pet scheme of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and the district administration.

Also 74,000 families completed 100 days of work in the 2017-18 fiscal. In the last three days of the end of the financial year alone, wages worth Rs 66 lakh had been paid to the labourers. About 80,000 farm ponds digging have been completed and another 30,000 which are in various stages of completion will be finished by June 2017.

The MGNREGS under which rural wage workers have emerged as a large nation-building work force is contributing to creation of social and public assets at the village level. District Water Management Agency (DWMA) which is working under the leadership of District Collector Kona Sasidhar is the moving force behind the creation of public assets and the success of the NREGS movement in the district.

Highlights:

• Rs 545 crore spent on wages for NREGS labourers and material component in 2016-17 financial year
• Digging of 80,000 farm ponds completed and another 30,000 will be finished by June 2017
• NREGS movement is successful in the district for creation of social and public assets

In 2016-17 financial year, an amount of Rs 545 crore had been spent on laying 436 km roads; undertaking of 1.1 lakh farm ponds digging; 25,000 individual house hold latrines; 881 Anganwadi buildings; 117 gram panchayat buildings; 24 Shree Shakti bhavans;

planting 1 crore seedlings as part of social forestry; maintenance of plantations in 30,110 acres; 500 water troughs for cattle; promotion of mulberry plantations in 1,000 acres and in execution of 31 solid waste management projects in rural areas. An amount of 32,960 lakhs was spent on payment of wages for labourers, and Rs 21,973 lakhs on material component for execution of works relating to creation of assets.

MGNREGS which was once frowned upon as a lazy work force during the days of its inception for its poor productivity, has over the years emerged as a productive work force realising the twin objectives of creation of work for 100 days for rural poor and also for using the work force for creation of social and public assets.

Today, the work force is being used to cover the entire gamut of public and social works execution including laying of roads, construction of government and community buildings, de-silting of village tanks, digging of farm ponds, trenches, soak pits, tree plantation and maintenance and just anything on earth that has to do with social and community development.

DWMA Project Director A Nagabhushanam told The Hans India that the wage rate being paid to men and women workers include Rs 194 per day apart from other allowances being paid, which include Rs 19 distance allowance, Rs 3 mate allowance, Rs 5 drinking water allowance, Rs 6.88 butter milk, Rs 20 distance allowance for disabled, Rs10 shade allowance, Rs 5 for basket, Rs 10 for crow bar and Rs 10 for PLM allowance.

The latest dimension to NREGS is creation of hundreds of crores worth public assets which is turning the scheme all the more beautiful.District Collector Kona Sasidhar's resolve to achieve the impossible feat of transforming NREGS work force into a community and nation-building work force and the commitment of DWMA Project Director in constant monitoring of the project through his continuous field visits and motivating his subordinate staff has brought in sea change in the very character of the scheme which was once taken very lightly by the wage workers.

District Collector Kona Sasidhar told The Hans India that the national feat of digging 1.1 lakh farm ponds will remain in history as a major achievement not only in terms of numbers but also in creating permanent water conservation infrastructure for the people of the district.

These will remain as the government's gift to farmers and for posterity. Nationwide NREGS was once viewed by wage workers as a money spinner. It was merely muster based with workers hardly doing anything fruitful and that too for a couple of hours. There was wide criticism that the scheme had made rural agriculture workers lazy.

This picture has changed in the district. The NREGS workers are working for 6-7 hours a day and the important element of the scheme is community development. Until recently, NREGS workers indulged in futile exercise and unproductive work like digging a pit and closing the pit just for record’s sake that some work has been turned out.

The scheme experienced a metamorphosis of doing highly productive work.Out of 7.86 lakh wage workers holding job cards, 5.27 lakh job card holders actively participated in community development works. The heartening aspect of the project is involvement of 2.6 lakh women workers in the current year. The district stands today as number two in wages payment to labourers and first in the country in digging of the largest number of farm ponds in the state and as well as in the country.

Ravi P Benjamin