With over 50L Persondays in 30 Days, Ganjam Posts Stellar Performance in MGNREGS Implementation in Odisha

Chatrapur: Ganjam district has once again come up with stellar performance in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a demand-driven scheme that ensure livelihoods in the rural areas.

With over 50 lakh persondays in the first 30 days of current fiscal, Ganjam has emerged as the top district in Odisha to provide employment under the rural employment guarantee scheme.

As per the official data, the district has generated 50,15,991 man-days in the first month of 2021-22 financial year, which is the highest in the State.

With reverse migration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ganjam administration has focused on employment generating schemes to support livelihoods of the people in the rural areas, thereby creating valuable assets like buildings, roads and ponds etc.

The district administration has credited a whopping Rs 75 crore as wages to people engaged in this massive livelihood generation program.

These numbers are expected to jump manifold by in current financial year.

It was a major challenge for the administration as large number of migrant workers from across the country returned to their villages as a fallout of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Managing their return and providing livelihood support to them was a herculean task that the district administration achieved successfully, said Ganjam Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange.

The district administration has taken up numerous projects, such as project deshi (poultry), mushroom farming, cattle sheds, dug well, fodder cultivation, rural connectivity, culvert, renovation of tanks, playgrounds, cremation grounds, AWC buildings, rural parks, and rural libraries among others.

Since MGNREGS is a demand-driven program, the district has also taken step to create awareness about the entitlements and participatory NRM planning processes.

Shinde Dattatraya Bhausaheb, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency, Ganjam, said that the DRDA aims to cover every household in the rural areas under the scheme with one benefit or another.

Ganjam Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange has congratulated the DRDA team for the achievement.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was enacted in 2005. It guarantees 100 days of wage employment (manual unskilled work) to the members of any rural household every year. MGNREGA is implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development in collaboration with the State Government.