Dharwad
As all the eight taluks in Dharwad district have been declared drought-hit by the state government, the drought relief works have been intensified in the district.
The district administration has already submitted a report on the crop loss due to drought and has sought a compensation of Rs 212 crore. In a bid to help the distraught farmers’ families, the district administration has come forward to provide them employment under National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGA).
According to Zilla Panchayat officials, as many as 1.6 lakh families have registered for employment under NREGA in the district. The NREGA guidelines stipulate that each family gets 100 days of employment. However, the administration has increased the number of days of employment from 100 to 150.
The administration has a target of creating 26 lakh human days of employment during the period from April 2023 to March 2024 in the district. In the last seven months, i.e. till October 25, 16,15,357 human days of employment were created covering 62.13 per cent of the target and wages to the tune of Rs 77 crore have been paid.The state government has directed the administration to increase the target and create additional employment of 10,16,163 human days.
Works on construction of roads, ponds, tanks and desilting of water bodies used to be taken up under NREGA. Now, in order to create more human days of employment, new works along with the existing ones have been taken up. Digging of soak pits, construction of water tanks for cattle, wet waste management, digging of pits for plantations of mango, arecanut and social forestry among others have been added to the list of works under NREGA.
