MGNREGA fails to stop migration
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), aimed at providing 100 days employment to the poor labourers in rural areas, has failed to mitigate migration in the district during the last few years.
Delay in implementation of works makes Mahabubnagar labourers leave their villages for cities in search of livelihood
Mahbubnagar: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), aimed at providing 100 days employment to the poor labourers in rural areas, has failed to mitigate migration in the district during the last few years.
As per statistical report by the District Water Management Authority (DWMA) project director (PD), Damodar Reddy, of Mahbubnagar district, 43 Gram Panchayats in various mandals are yet to launch MGNREA programme. In Maddur mandal, villages like Nandipadu with 1,200 job cards and Lakkapally with 400 job cards are yet assign MGNREA works.
As a result, most of the rural folk in these villages are migrating to other big cities like Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad for livelihood. “Already the rainy season has failed the crops; on top of it we are also not getting works under the MGNREA scheme, we are left with no option but to leave our villages for cities for work,” says a labourer from Lakkapally village.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, those who are getting works under MGNREA scheme, in most of the mandals, are not being paid for their works. More than 14 villages under Makthal and Kalwakurthy mandals have not received their payments during the past two years.
The PD cites sluggish implementation of the livelihood programme due to staff crunch as the main reason. Moreover, corruption and mismanagement among field assistants and technical assistants (FAs&TAs) have also witnessed large number of them being suspended from their jobs. Increased intervention of local political leaders like Sarpanch, MPTC, ZPTCs etc who are meddling with appointments of FAs and TAs is also cited as reason.
According to PD, at least seven mandals in the district are not having any FAs or TAs. All the villages under these mandals are taken care by the PD directly. “We are facing lot of staff crunch to implement the MGNREA programme in the district. While in some cases, there is no skilled work force available to appoint them as FAs and TAs, in some other cases, there is huge political intervention to appoint these vacancies. Due to these issues, we are not able to reach the set goals,” said Damodar Reddy.
At present, there are about only 15,000 job cards issued to labourers to work under the MGNREA scheme. When compared to the total population of about 50 lakh in the district, these job cards are only a fraction of the total population in the district. It aptly tells that the MGNREA programme has utterly failed to mitigate the migration of labourers in the district.
By A Raju
