Malkangiri: The lockdown has paralysed all activities across the country even as the Centre has laid stress on generating scope for work for people through effective implementation of MGNREGS.
Sadly, at this time of crisis, MGNREGS works are being carried out with machines instead of engaging manual labour in Malkangiri while the district administration has failed to stop such illegal work, a report said.
Corona-induced lockdown has created an unprecedented situation in the country. According to reports, over 30,000 people from various parts of the district have migrated to other states in search of work. The migrant workers continue to return to their homes. They not only fight to save their lives from the deadly coronavirus but also struggle to find livelihoods.
The worst-hit by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are no doubt the poor, especially the ones living in rural areas. There have been efforts to bring them back home. Isolation and quarantine centres and other health check-up centres have been set up in rural areas to ensure their safety.
The government has planned to release all the pending wages under the rural job scheme of MGNREGA while the money is supposed to reach the accounts of the beneficiaries directly.
The top three components where the maximum work has been focused are works on individual fields , water conservation and water harvesting and drought proofing.
As migrant workers return home, they need work. The administration has been making efforts to implement the MGNREGS after additional chief secretary and the secretary of food and civil supplies department held a review meeting on this. The secretaries asked the officials to engage labourers in MGNREGS projects, but it was found that machines are being used in most projects, proving that the rural job scheme is not coming to the rescue of the rural poor at this critical juncture.
Renovation of an old pond is being carried out at MG-53 of Potrol panchayat under Korukunda block. The contractor has been carrying out the work with the help of excavators and 14 tractors. The earth dug out from the pond is supposed to be dumped around the pond, but it is being dumped into craters of some people.
Social activists and intellectuals have flayed such act and demanded that the administration look into such illegalities and ensure that local people be engaged in the work at this critical time.
PNN