Guntur has topped the list in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage component in the 2017-18 fiscal year by undertaking works worth ₹155 crore, registering a 28 per cent increase than that of the previous year.
The achievement comes after years of slackening off when the district had fared rather poorly in all indicators of the MGNREGS. But, the last fiscal saw the authorities generating 1.07 crore man days of works worth ₹383 crore that had been completed under the job scheme. Employment was provided to 6.94 lakh wage seekers in the rural areas of the district.
₹360-cr. target
“Thanks to the MGNREGS, the district is racing ahead in all indices of rural development. Be it digging of 1,141 farm ponds, construction of 10,814 Individual Household Latrines (IHLs) or helping farmers cultivate horticultural crops, the district is now leading from the front. We have set a target of completing the works worth ₹360 crore this fiscal year,’’ said District Water Management Agency project director P. Srinivasulu.
The MGNREGS works were revived last year with the intense field visits by Collector Kona Sasidhar. The DWMA project director identified targeted areas in the backward mandals. Farm ponds which can help farmers preserve rain water was in focus. Construction of IHHLs was also undertaken in a mission mode, apart from laying of CC roads, basic amenities at burial grounds, and digging bore-wells under NTR Jala Siri Scheme.
Action plan ready
The department has also made an action plan targeting to spend ₹360 crore to generate 1.40 crore mandays of works.
