The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) came in handy for the district administration in addressing the demand from wage seekers during April and May, the peak lockdown period of coronavirus. Sangareddy district stood second in the State in providing employment under the scheme.
Owing to the virus and the subsequent lockdown, thousands of workers migrated to native places, unable to get income in the towns. This increased demand for work. The district administration has issued more than 12,000 new job cards for those who demanded the cards.
The highest number of job cards were issued at Nagalgidda (1,136) followed by Sirgapur (902), Kalher (836) and Gummadidala (791), Kangti (787) and Naryanakhed (784).
While the target of providing 84 lakh mandays in the year was entrusted to officials of the District Rural Development Office (DRDO), they were able to create more than half – 44.77 lakh mandays — in the first two months of the financial year — April and May. In both these months, the officials paid as much as ₹71.16 crore to the labour excluding holidays between April and June first week. This comes to about ₹1.2 crore per day that was paid to the labourers in the district working under NREGS.
For the first time in the district, NERGS works were taken up in eight villages of Gummdidala mandal after a long gap as a result of the lockdown. Here, a majority of workers were engaged in industries and as the units were closed down, they switched to NREGS works.
“We are able to improve the rural economy by pumping in more than ₹ 71 crore during the lockdown by providing works under NREGS. We have crossed more than half of the annual target,” Ch. Srinivas Rao told the general body meeting of the Zilla Parishat held here on Wednesday.
