VIJAYAWADA: Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has said Andhra Pradesh stood second in the country in providing work to more number of people under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and stood top in clearing the wages to workers in time.
The state also created a record by providing work to 54.42 lakh persons on a single day (June 8 last year).
Holding a review meeting with DWMA project directors of all the 13 districts on the ongoing works under the MGNREGS at Panchayat Raj Commissionerate in Tadepalli on Thursday, the minister said that work was provided to 15 lakh migrant workers returned to the state during the Covid lockdown and directed the officials to ensure that all those workers staying in their villages are provided with work.
CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to control migrations, he said and directed the officials to take it as a priority.
Alleging that large-scale irregularities took place in the MGNREGS works during the previous regime, he said a vigilance inquiry was going on into the same.
“DWMA project directors may be of the view that the engineering department will have to take whole responsibility for the irregularities and corruption. But action will be taken against all those responsible for misuse of people’s money,” he warned.
“As against the total 25.25 crore person days allocated to the state by the Centre, we have completed 22.44 crore person days so far and it is estimated to facilitate another 5 crore man days in the coming two months. If we cross the target, there are possibilities of the State getting 30 crore person days in next fiscal,” he said and directed the DWMA PDs and MPDOs to take steps for expediting the MGNREGS works.
Peddireddy said that there are possibilities of getting Rs 5,000 crore as material component in the next fiscal if the government spends Rs 4,000 crore allotted this fiscal.
Stating that 70 lakh saplings were planted as part of the MGNREGS, he said each and every plant should be protected.
Machilipatnam MP Balashowry, Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, Commissioner M Girija Shankar and other officials were present.