MGNREGA: Belagavi ranks 1st in creating employment days

Belagavi: The district has again topped the state in creating highest man-days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the first quarter of this year. According to zilla panchayat sources, a total of 61.4 lakh man-days have been created in the past three months, followed by 58.7 lakh man-days in Raichur, 57.4 lakh in Koppal, 49.2 lakh in Ballari and 42.5 lakh man-days in Vijayapura district. The district has set a target of creating employment of 1.4 lakh man-days in 2023-24. However, it has achieved beyond the target in April, May, and June months. In May and June, more than 1 lakh people worked every day under the scheme. The ZP had created 42.7 lakh man-days in the last quarter of the year in 2022-23. But the achievement of the first quarter of this financial year is beyond expectations. Moreover, on July 1, 2023, a total 2.8 lakh man-days were created in the district, which is a record as far as Karnataka is concerned. Interestingly, women’s participation in getting benefit of the scheme is higher than that of men in the district. In 2022-23, the percentage of women participating was 54.4%, which has been increased to 58.6% in the current financial year. When compared to last quarter, women’s participation has increased by 4.2% in the district in the first quarter. According to ZP CEO Harshal Bhoyar, the remarkable result creating more man-days is due to continual awareness about the MNNREGA created at the gram panchayat level by self-help groups, and taluk level special coordinators keeping tab on the ongoing works.“It is a matter of pride that the district has created the highest number of man-days under MGNREGA. This is due to the efforts and cooperation of all the gram panchayat level officials and other staff,” CEO Bhoyar said. He also appealed to physically challenged individuals and senior citizens to make the most of the scheme. According to Ravi Bangareppanavar, project director, DRDA section, the reason behind sudden spike in the man-days is delayed monsoon. “Due to delayed monsoon, the sowing activities also have been delayed in the district. Maximum number of daily wage workers turned to MGNREGA as there was no work at farms, which led to creation of highest number of man-days under the scheme,” he asserted.
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