Two million more likely to come under the job scheme due to drought this fiscal
With drought declared in 981 of the 1,128 mandals in the state, the Andhra Pradesh government proposes to spend Rs 6,500 crore under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during the current financial year.
“There will be a demand for wages from 2 million new people in the state due to drought this year. The position will relax only when farming operations start in the rabi season,” said rural development department principal secretary K Raju.
For 2 million people, the wage bill would now amount to Rs 2,000 crore more from the earlier estimate of Rs 4,500 crore for the year. Of this, the government has already paid wages of Rs 2,291 crore till September 18.
“We have already made a representation to the Centre for the required funds,” he said. Nine million people in the state currently are under the NREGS, a national scheme that assures at least 100 days of employment to households.
“We are monitoring the wage employment situation in all the drought-affected mandals,” he said, adding adequate shelf of work was being created to meet the rising demand. The basic agricultural operations that began due to late rains would last for one more month.
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He said the government had strengthened the implementation mechanism by appointing muster verification officers to verify works twice every week at various mandals. Besides, a large number of engineers, on deputation from other departments, would carry out the measurement works. A call centre to answer queries related to NREGS has also been launched.
The government during the current financial year provided an average 45 days employment. “The focus now is on increasing the average days employment provided per household,”' Raju said. In all, 225.9 million person days of employment has been created during this financial year.
Administrative sanction to 1.35 million works worth Rs 19,110 crore has already been given. As many as 539,000 works worth Rs 9,647.6 crore are in progress while 142,000 works worth Rs 2,281 crore have been completed. About 90 per cent of the expenditure went for the labour and the remaining for material. Besides, nearly 60 per cent of the wages are paid within three days, he said.
According to Harish Chandra Prasad, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (Andhra Pradesh), the NREGS would help the labour in the drought-hit mandals.
“However, care should be taken to ensure that the money is spent on sustainable projects and not on non-productive works,” he said.