With easing of lock down restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rural Development Department (RDD), Budgam has activated men and material to take up most of the works under MGNREGA and PMAY flagship programmes to enable labour class of the district to earn their livelihood and overcome financial crisis they were facing due to lockdown.As the restrictions were eased, RDD has been giving special focus on resuming stalled schemes besides taking up of new labour oriented works particularly under MGNREGA and having enormous potential to generate large number of man-days all across the district so that workers are provided the means to earn their livelihood.“Following the Government instructions all the labour oriented works and developmental activities, which were halted due to lockdown and restrictions, were resumed immediately after certain relaxation were announced by the Government, especially on public movement”, said Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD) Budgam, Ms Nuzhat Qureshi.“The works were taken up on fast track basis and each Panchayat was asked to prioritize the works to ensure execution of minimum two works in the first instance”, she added.To ensure smooth execution of all undergoing works, the Rural Development Department (RDD) is working in synergy with all line departments and allied agencies with the aim of achieving the targets and compensate the time lost due to lockdown. While elaborating on resumption of developmental activities, she said that focus initially was how to provide immediate financial help to underprivileged, poor, workless labour class of the district.
Accordingly, about 999 works including 780 spillover and 219 new ones were taken in hand for early completion while Rs. 10.32 cores have been credited into the individual accounts of beneficiaries through DBT mode on account of wages so far. “Works under MGNREGA and PMAY were taken up purposely as these are main source of generating livelihood means for labour class and 17280 laborers were simultaneously engaged across the district in 17 CD blocks thereby generating about 1.22 lakh man-days providing alternate employment to 9602 households,” she said.Regarding progress made under PMAY since the easing of restrictions, the department has cleared 33 new cases under this scheme for sanction and subsequently Rs. 12.90 lac have been released in favour of the beneficiaries registered with the department as first installment, she added.“Despite challenging circumstances due to Covid-19 outbreak, it was a challenge for the district administration to ensure maintaining proper hygiene and social distancing norms at all work-sites as most of the works are done manually and are labourer oriented. For this purpose, the Rural Development Department provided 4.50 lac face masks, adequate quantity of hand sanitizers, drinking water and hand washing soaps to the laborers engaged on different works,” the officer said.“RDD Budgam has worked tirelessly to extend financial support to labour class during the lockdown period when all activities had come to a standstill and the department has succeeded to a great extent. The department will work in the same spirit and speed for overall betterment of the people of Budgam district,” the officer added.