VIJAYAWADA: Officials of the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development are confident of achieving the target of 16 crore man-days under MGNREGS by the end of June as mandated by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Even as the Centre allotted 20 crore person days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to Andhra Pradesh for the fiscal 2021-22, the state government is eying to complete at least 15 crore mandays as early as possible so as to convince the Centre to allocate more number of person days to the state in the current fiscal.
Informing that about 8.28 crore person days were completed as on Friday, a senior official said they are taking every initiative to meet the target set by the CM. Speaking to TNIE, the official, while admitting that the number of workers turning up for work under NREGS is low in some villages due to the Covid panic, said they are focusing on villages lagging and are motivating the workers to join the works ensuring their safety. “Our staff are also discussing with sarpanchs and requesting them to sensitise those in need of work to attend the NREGS works.”
Stating that the number of workers taking part in NREG S stood at 37 lakh at present, the official anticipated that they are expecting to complete more than 16 crore person days by the end of June as they completed more than 8 crore person days in June of 2020 alone. Making it clear that every district should complete at least one crore person days by June end, the official said districts such as Nellore, Chittoor and Visakhapatnam lagging in this aspect were told to meet the target.