Khammam: Efforts are being made to use the funds being released under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for a cleaner environment to check spread of diseases in rural areas.
Dengue and malaria, gastroenteritis and other diseases have been spreading in rural areas due to unclean surroundings.
Panchayats are unable to allocate funds since they are facing a severe financial crunch due to meagre tax collections.
The state government is not giving any special funds for sanitation in the gram panchayats.
Because of this, thousands of panchayats have turned into garbage heaps, leading spread of disease.
The Prime Minister has asked secretaries of all the departments to allocate funds in the budget innovatively.
This has led to officials contemplating to use MNREGS funds to clean villages.
The MNREGS officials in the district have been asked to send a report on the issue.
As per the details, the government would involve labourers under MNREGS to work for sanitation in the villages.
MNREGS official J.K. Reddy said that the labourers would be involved 180 days a year under the scheme.
