VIJAYAWADA: Against the 14 crore person days allocated to the State under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the government has generated 16 crore person days by August. As the programme is demand driven, officials are confident that the Centre will call for a labour budget review meeting in a week and allocate more person days to AP.
Even as the State government which generated more than 24 crore person days in 2021-22 and sent proposals to the Centre seeking 26 crore person days for 2022-23, the latter sanctioned only 14 crore person days.
However, as the programme is demand driven, the officials allowed all the wage seekers without any restrictions resulting in the achievement of 16 crore person days (two crore more than the allocated) in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior official of the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department said the NREGS works reached peak with thousands of people opting for the scheme in May and June. Some districts in the State generated more than one crore person days in a month due to heavy demand.
The official observed that as there was no agriculture work in summer in most parts of the State, most of the villagers opted for NREGS works.
However, with the commencement of agriculture activities during the monsoon, the demand for the NREGS works has now declined to a great extent as the average number of workers attending the works in the first week of August, stood at a meagre 1.70 lakh a day across the State.
Proposals will be submitted to the Centre soon seeking allocation of more person days under NREGS, he added.