BERHAMPUR: GANJAM district has bagged the top honours in the country for generating man-days and providing 100 days of work to rural households under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) till January 22. Four days after Aska police station received the best police station status in the country, the administration’s achievement in rural employment scheme has come as a double bonanza.
Around 63,449 households in the district were provided 100 days employment during 2022-23. “The district also generated 2.26 crore man-days under MGNREGA during the same period and topped the country,” said chief development officer of Ganjam zilla parishad V Keerthi Vasan. It also achieved the top position among 30 districts of the state regarding participation of women under the scheme. It achieved 58 per cent women participation under the scheme, said Vasan.
Rajasthan’s Barmer (2.18 crore) and Tiruvannamalai (2.13 crore) in Tamil Nadu were placed after Ganjam in terms of generating man days during the period.Similarly, Kandhamal district (35,141), Barmer (34,994) and Balangir (26,209) stood second, third and fourth respectively in the country in providing 100 days work to households during the fiscal.
For the fiscal year 2023-24, the district has a target of generating 3.54 crore man-days. “The engagements created under the labour-intensive scheme has helped rural people to sustain their livelihoods during the post-pandemic period and the job-seekers to stay back in their native villages without returning to their work places where they were employed before the Covid outbreak,” Vasan added.
Infrastructure projects like cattle hostels, rural parks, rural tourist circuits, model hatcheries, library-cum-infotainment centres, model ponds, cremation sheds, gymnasiums and others were taken up under the scheme, apart from construction of roads and drains, he said.