Power cuts hit MNREGS payments

Anantapur: Frequent power cuts had hit the payment of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) programme bills in Anantapur. As many as 56,586 pay orders (Bills) of 2,42,664 labourers, worth Rs 100 crore were pending due to frequent power cuts and server break-downs. Most of the bills in Madakasira, Nallacheruvu, Nambulapulakunta, Rapthadu, Somandepalle, Kanekal, Pedavadugur and Chennekothepalle mandals are pending. The officials were facing several problems in entering the pay orders details in online due to the frequent power outages. As the pending bill amount is deducted from the salaries of the officials concerned, if the bills are not paid within 15 days, the computer operators were working overnight. Employees were worried about the salary deduction. The capacity of the computer batteries declined and they are hardly providing power backup for more than half-an�hour. DWAMA Project Director Dilli Rao recognised the problems and made arrangements for the procurement of batteries in 12 mandals. He informed that alternative arrangements were made for the speedy disbursal of pending bills. He prepared proposals for the procurement of new batteries with a power back up capacity up to six hours and submitted to District Collector. Project Director also said that arrangements were being made to tap solar energy. He assured that the problem would be resolved by making alternative arrangements.