With a surge in wage employment, material expenses, and the issuance of new job cards, Andhra Pradesh’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2005) is looking good for 2020-21.
Andhra Pradesh was able to make better use of MGNREGA funds to provide workers with employment and appropriate material wages.
With the pandemic and remigration caused by the lockdown, the Central Program helped thousands of workers earn a living, and the state was able to use the material component to create assets such as buildings with anganwadis, village secretariats and Rythu Bharosa Kendras.
According to an analytical report compiled by LibTech and represented by a team of engineers, social workers, and social scientists, improving public service delivery using publicly available data from fiscal years 2018-19 through 2020-21 focused on Andhra Pradesh’s share is 10,365.5 crore (9.21%) released by the Center as part of the program for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
“We used the data available as of March 31, 2021 and focused on key components such as MGNREGA spending, job cards, employment generated and payment issues,” says Chakradhar Buddha, one of the team members.
For the first time, he points out, NREGA spending in the state exceeded 10,000 crore. Compared to the past two years, spending has risen to over £ 10,020 crore and is in fact the highest in the history of the system’s implementation in the state.
This puts AP in third place in the country in terms of total expenditure. Although the state has had higher spending than Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, it has generated fewer persondays than these states.
“The dual collection system has also helped increase spending,” explains Buddha.
In fiscal 2020-21, a total of 4.4 lakh (4,46,571) new job cards were issued and a total of 7.3 lakh (7,29,121) workers were added. This corresponds to 3.44% of all job cards issued in the state since the system began.
Most of the new job cards were issued in Anantapur District (53,844) and Visakhapatnam District (52,062) and few in Nellore District (15,689).
Job creation
This year, 26.04 crore persondays were generated, the highest in the past three years and a 30% increase from 20.08 crore in 2019-20. “Interestingly, 75% of the total persondays were generated in the first four months of fiscal 2020-21,” says Buddha.
Contrary to the law that requires the release of payments to workers within 15 days of their work, the center rarely releases funds in a timely manner, and even after payment has been received, many transactions remain hanging on to Aadhaar due to problems at the bank level due to problems at the bank Job card or issues related to the account.
Vizianagaram had the lowest percentage of the worst performing gram panchayats while Guntur had the highest percentage. “There is an opportunity to further improve the implementation of this program, which will give the most deserving sections their right to a living,” said Buddha.