Bolangir: Members of a family in this district have created an all time record by working for complete 300 days in the MGNREGS poverty alleviation scheme being implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Act (MGNREGA), a report said.
They were identified as Bhubaneswar Chhura and his family of Ghantasagada village under Adabahal panchayat of Titilagarh block in Bolangir district.
The family has shown others how migrating to other states for livelihood could be avoided if work is available near home. The whole family has now decided to work under MGNREGS that fetched them more than Rs 90,000 in this fiscal.
The achievement has been welcomed by the state panchayatiraj secretary DK Singh, special project director Arindam Dakua. The two have congratulated District Collector Chanchal Rana, DRDA project director Maheswar Swain and his team for achieving the stupendous feat in the migration prone Bolangir district.
It was not long ago when Chhura along with four members of his family used to migrate to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in search of livelihood.
However, they failed to earn livelihood from the employers and were rather subjected to physical and mental torture. Most of the time, they had to go hungry, after being held hostage by the owners.
Meanwhile, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guaranty Scheme opened up Bhubaneswar’s eyes. He engaged himself in renovating the village pond, shared his labour constructing village street under the rural employment scheme. His family earned around Rs 90,60,044 as wages.
“We had never earned this much of sum in our life. We had earlier never heard of MGNREGS. But, now we will never think of migrating elsewhere in search of employment,” said Chhura.
Reports said the district administration ensured 100-days works after the MGNREGS was first implemented in the district in 2006. Significantly, Bolangir district in Odisha is infamous for migration of labourers.
Later, the state government decided to provide 200 days of work with daily wage of Rs 208 for 20 blocks of four migration prone districts of Bolangir, Bargarh, Kalahandi and Nuapada districts.
However, the district administration has been able to provide 300 days work with daily wage of Rs 308 in six migration prone blocks of Khaprakhol, Belpada, Turekela, Bangomunda, Muribahal and Titilagarh blocks.
When contacted, Maheswar Swain, PD, DRDA said over 33,237 families in the district have been able to get work for 100 days. Moreover, the district administration has provided 200 days of work to 2561 families while 1.13 crore workdays have been created in the district under the scheme.
PNN