BENGALURU: With over 136 taluks in the state reeling under severe drought-like conditions, there has been a huge jump in the number of people seeking employment in rural areas under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, in the last three months.
According to official sources, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) that monitors the implementation of the scheme has noted a quantum jump in the number of people seeking rural jobs in the last three months, compared to the first three months of the financial year.
Sources told Express that while the number of persondays generated in April this year, stood at 91,808 in the 30 districts, it had jumped to over 43.51 lakh in August and to over 65 lakh till September 23 this year.
According to data available with the RDPR Department, payment of wages to the NAREGA workers, who had registered their names in the muster roll, too has gone up in the last three months.
While the authorities had paid over `17.97 crore as wages in April 2015, the amount paid towards wages in August accounted for over `222.52 crore.
While the highest number of persondays was 5.81 lakh generated in Raichur. Belagavi had 3.52 lakh, Bidar 3.16 lakh, Bagalkot 2.75 lakh, Hassan 2.16 lakh and Ramanagaram 2.04 lakh and Bengaluru Urban generated 6,670 persondays. With 13,354, Kodagu generated least persondays under the scheme in August.
Sources said while 66,401 works were completed under the scheme so far this year, 8.18 lakh works were in progress.
Speaking to Express, Prabhash Chandra Ray, Commissioner, RDPR, said that the state government had issued strict guidelines to step up the MGNREGS scheme across the state vigorously, following the unprecedented drought conditions in the state.
“The department had directed all the panchayats to take up a minimum of two community-related works in their jurisdiction engaging about 100 to 200 workers under the scheme,” a source said.
They added that in each district, the scheme was being implemented on war footing.
The works undertaken in the scheme include that of water conservation, construction of bunds to prevent soil erosion and other watershed related programmes, he said.
However, when compared to last year’s figures, there is not much of a jump in the persondays generated. During 2014-15, the number of persondays generated for June, stood at 21.14 lakh followed by 37.43 lakh in July, 33.44 lakh in August and 42.53 lakh in September.
The persondays generated in June 2015 accounted for 15.71 lakh, July 26.03 lakh, August 43.51 lakh and 65.99 lakh till September 23.