Kurnool district administration has chalked out plans to achieve the ‘priorities’ set by the State government in undertaking Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) works.
District Collector P. Ranjith Basha said that an action plan has been set for the next three months and it was decided that 300 water tanks for cattle will be constructed with an estimated cost of ₹1 crore by the end of April 10. The district administration also decided to construct 8,500 farm ponds with a cost of ₹54 crore, providing 12 lakh work days to the workers. A deadline of May 31 has been set for completing these works.
Another work prioritised by the government is the desilting and strengthening of tanks and ponds. The district administration will take up these works in 138 tanks and ponds. Mr. Ranjith Basha said that desilting will also be done in nearly 3,000 km of canals in the next three months. “We have decided to spend ₹300 crore as wage component in the coming one year by providing an average of ₹307 as daily wages,” the Collector said.
Elaborating on the works taken up under the MGNREGA in 2024-25, the Collector said that 2.14 lakh families have been provided with 89 lakh wage days with ₹250 crore. “Nearly 119.72 km road was laid by spending ₹78 crore. The district stood number one in laying of roads,” he said. The district administration had taken up 1,496 works in the previous year related to desilting of tanks and ponds and paid ₹17.03 crore as wages to the workers. By doing this, 149.60 crore litres of water has been percolated into the ground,” he said.
Similarly, desiltation was taken up in 6,273 km length of canals by spending ₹92.91 crore as wages. A total of 751 ‘Gokulams’ have been constructed by spending ₹11.50 crore, while the cultivation of mango, sweet lemon, drumstick and other commercial crops was taken up in 3,774 acres of land belonging to 2,186 farmers by spending ₹5.86 crore.
Published – April 05, 2025 07:08 pm IST
