The Hindu Business Line : AP to expand scope of rural job scheme

Hyderabad May 13 Keeping in mind several demands from people's representatives, the Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to expand the scope of NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) by bringing works like inter-village road laying works.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Friday, Mr G. Chinna Reddy, Minister for Rural Development, said the scheme allowed zilla parishads to propose 10 per cent of the works and mandal parishads 15 per cent of works, while the gram panchayats could propose 75 per cent.

The Minister, who assumed charge as the Minister for Rural Development recently, released a booklet, listing various developmental activities taken up by the Ministry in the last three years.

Funds utilisation

Stating that the Government could not utilise the NREGS funds fully, he said an amount of Rs 703 crore was spent benefiting 23 lakh families. "But we received Rs 1,118 crore for 2006-07," he said.

The scheme envisaged 100 days of job days for each rural household. The number of districts covered under the scheme now stood at 19, with the recent decision to include Nellore, East Godavari, Srikakulam, Kurnool, Prakasam and Guntur districts.

Check on migration

The Minister claimed that the scheme helped arrest migration from villages. Citing a few examples in Chittoor and Mahboobnagar districts, he said people, after learning about the kind of works offered back home, were returning to their villages.

On Indira Kranthi Patham (formerly Velugu, a World Bank-funded poverty alleviation programme), he said the scheme had so far covered 30 lakh poor families.

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