VIJAYAWADA: Even as the spread of COVID-19 is having an adverse impact on various sectors, officials of the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development department say that the works being taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have not been hampered so far with many people preferring to make it as their major income source by staying in their own villages instead of going to towns and cities.
As against the 20 crore person days allocated by the Centre to Andhra Pradesh for the fiscal 2021-21, 3.11 crore person days were completed in April, the first month of the current fiscal. "There is a gradual increase in turnout of the workers. The number of workers increased from 10 to 12 lakh to 28-30 lakh a day by the end of April," Panchayat Raj department Commissioner M Girija Shankar said.
Observing that people in rural villages are not going out in search of work because of the spread of COVID and turning for the works under NREGS in their village itself, the official said that instructions have been issued to the staff at field level to provide work as per demand. Officials said the workers are following Covid guidelines.