Ganjam tops country in MGNREGA work

Ganjam district has bagged the top honours in the country for generating man-days and providing 100 days of work to rural households under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) till January 22.

• Ganjam was followed by Barmera (2.18 crore) in Rajasthan and Tiruvannamalai (2.13 crore) in Tamil Nadu in generating man days during the period.

About Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

• National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (or, NREGA), later renamed as the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”, MGNREGA), is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’.
• It is a poverty alleviation programme of the Government of India, which provides the legal Right to Work in exchange for money to the citizens of the country.
• On average, every day approximately 1.5 crore people work under it at almost 14 lakh sites.
• It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• It is shared between the Centre and the States.
• The Central Government bears 100 per cent of the cost of unskilled labour, 75 percent of the cost of semi-skilled and skilled labour, 75 percent of the cost of materials and 6 percent of the administrative costs.
• MGNREGA is to be implemented mainly by gram panchayats (GPs). 
• The involvement of contractors is banned. 
• Labour-intensive tasks like creating infrastructure for water harvesting, drought relief, and flood control are preferred.