Ballari district, which is reeling under severe drought, has been ranked second in terms of generation of person-days and first in terms of disbursal of wages within stipulated time at the State level under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
As against the target of 44.72 lakh for the current financial year, 36.11 lakh (81%) person-days had been generated as on November 6. The district has registered 99.93% as far as disbursal of wages within the stipulated time is concerned. It has been ranked eighth in terms of geo-tagging assets — 90,254 of the total 98,906 works taken up under the job guarantee scheme have been geo-tagged so far.
“This financial year, we have distributed 2.54 lakh job cards as on November 6. The demand for employment was from 1.03 lakh families, of which 1.02 lakh families were provided jobs under the MGNREGA. Around 27,782 people were presently working in all the seven taluks of the district — in Hadagali taluk 7,323 people were working, followed by Hagaribommanahalli (6,701), Kudligi (4,685), Sandur (3,407), Ballari (2,112), Hosapete (1,814), and Siruguppa (1,740 people). So far, 1,263 families had got employment for 100 days, and 8,900 families had completed 81 to 90 days of employment. In addition, 339 families, who had completed 100 days were being provided an additional 50 days employment. All these steps and effective implementation of the MGNREGA has prevented migration “for want of employment”, Mukkanna Karigar, Deputy Secretary (Development), Ballari Zilla Panchayat, told The Hindu .
Apart from taking up dredging of tanks all over the district, which has helped in preventing migration for want of employment opportunities, works such as land development, extension of area under horticulture, construction of check dams, wayside tree plantation, construction of cattle sheds, vermicompost pits, farm ponds, and school compounds; and development of playgrounds and burial grounds, among others, have also been taken up.
Check dams
As per the direction of Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Krishna Byre Gowda, construction of 187 multi-arch check dams were taken up besides proposing to construct 2,000 check dams (10 in each gram panchayat) before the onset of the next monsoon to enable recharging of groundwater table, he said, and added, “During the current fiscal year, of the ₹202.13 crore allocated for the job scheme, ₹125 crore had been spent so far”.
