1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme will cease to exist as 130 Panchayats merge with Urban Bodies   n Clamour for 5-year extension gains pace
2. MGNREGS provides 100 days guaranteed wage employment in a financial year
3. MGNREGS is in implementation in 12769 Gram Panchayats covering 540 rural mandals in 32 districts
4. Wage employment is provided to 40.1 lakh wage seekers belonging to 25.4 lakh households.
5. Rs. 2835.37 Cr was paid as wages directly to the wage seekers accounts for the work done during the 2023-24.
6. Further, an amount of Rs. 746.55 Crore was incurred as material expenditure for execution of material intensive works like CC roads, Grama Panchayat buildings, Anganwadi centers etc.,

mahesh avadhutha I hyderabad

Around 50 Gram Panchayats inside ORR (Outer Ring Road) limits and another 80 Gram Panchayats in various districts of Telangana were merged with nearby municipalities recently by the State government. A gazette notification regarding the merger was issued in September and the Telangana legislature approved the related bill in the winter session that concluded a few days ago.

The merger is set to give a boost to infrastructure development, basic facilities besides streamlining administrative functioning in these areas. Welcoming this decision on one hand, politicians, however, are also concerned about the merger effect on BPL families residing in these villages. Post the merger with the urban local body, the major government scheme that will cease to exist is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). As the name indicates, this scheme is for employment in rural areas and once the village status is changed to semi-urban or urban, MGNREGS can no longer be implemented in that particular village. 

Against the various advantages that bring with merger, this is one big disadvantage at least from the point of view of the landless poor from that village.

Parigi MLA voices concerns

Parigi MLA T Rammohan Reddy raised this issue in assembly a few days ago and stressed the need to give five-years relaxation for the scheme in any village that will be merged into an urban local body. He said villagers from his Parigi segment have approached him and sought his intervention.

Rammohan Reddy appealed to the State government to pass a resolution and send the same to the Union government to do a rethink in existing guidelines and policies as the issue not pertains to just Telangana but to other states as well.

350 job cards became useless in Edulabad GP

Works executed: Desilting of traditional water bodies, desilting of field and feeder channels, Percolation tanks, staggered trenches for water conservation , Land development, Rural infrastructure works like CC roads, GP buildings and Anganwadi Centers, Earthen roads to agriculture fields and CC road works etc.

Recently Ankushapur, Mandaram, Edulabad, Ghanpur, and Marripalligudem villages were merged with Ghatkesar Municipality in Medchal-Malkajgiri district. Former Edulabad Sarpanch Musi Shanker stated that 350 individuals had been affected with the merger of Edulabad GP in Ghatkesar muncipality. They were informed about losing MGNREGS payments and works and from August (a month before Gazette notification was issued) the scheme was completely stopped in Edulabad. Shanker said that the affected families spent sleepless nights as they had to search for alternative livelihood. The ex-Sarpanch pointed out that the same situation exists in other GPs also, he pointed out.

It may be noted that MGNREGS scheme provides livelihood to the landless, poor families including the women folk in each village. Job cards are given to each individual enrolling under this scheme and each individual is given 100 days of work, which they can avail as per their convenience in one year. The wage fixed by the Centre is Rs 300 per day and each individual is guaranteed 100 days of work in one year. Each individual would get anywhere between Rs 20,000 to 30,000 depending upon the nature of work and the number of days availed in the one-year period.