Kadapa: The Kadapa District Water Management Authority (DWMA) has broken its own records in providing employment to those in rural areas under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). This is the first time in almost 14 years since the NREGA came into force in 2006 that it has provided more than one crore working days in the first three months of a financial year. In fact, while setting a target of 1.88 crore working days this year, DWMA officials are to be commended for achieving 100.33 lakhs working days, almost 60 per cent of the target in the first three months.
The MNREGS is in full swing in the district. The rural poor are the biggest beneficiaries of the employment guarantee scheme. More than one lakh workers a day are being benefitted from the scheme. The district administration has prepared plans to utilise more funds in the district under the MNREGS. It has prepared an annual report targeting to spend Rs 771.09 crore on employment in the financial year 2021-22 and spent Rs 233.95 crores till June 30, and provided 100.33 lakhs working days to labourers.
There are 5.45 lakh job cards in the district, however only nearly 3.73 lakhs job cards are in activation. Out of 794 gram panchayats, there were 29,864 Sham Shakti Sangham (SSS) registered. The total number of labour registered in these groups was 5,45,049. It has set a target of 1.88 crore personal working days under the scheme this year. 1.49 crore working days were provided in the last financial year.
DWMA project director Pandillapalli Yadubhushan Reddy told this newspaper this had been achieved with the full cooperation and encouragement of district collector Chevuru Harikiran. He expressed confidence that the rest of the mission would be completed smoothly. “We will work in the same spirit this year as well and will definitely provide employment beyond the target,” he said.
