Khammam: Desilting to up water under the scheme Mission Kakatiya

Khammam: The state government’s ambitious scheme Mission Kakatiya will be reflected in the MNREGS works taken up this year.

Fifty per cent of the money under the scheme will be spent on desilting of the tanks. The main aim of the desilting is to increase the groundwater table in the district. Telangana government which is concentrating more on irrigation water and groundwater, showed its influence on the employment guarantee scheme. About 35,000 works including desilting of the tanks and irrigation canals and digging of trenches at the slope areas have been identified under the scheme. The desilting will be taken up in the tanks which were not included in phase one and two of Mission Kakatiya. The dipping of groundwater is alarming and the desilting of the tanks will help in increasing the groundwater. The tanks in 24 mandals in the Agency area will be taken up for desilting. It is aimed to provide one crore man days in the summer in the district by paying Rs 150 crore in wages.

There are only 84,000 labourers involved in the MNREGS works out of five lakh labourers who obtained jobs. It is planned to double the figure this summer.

The labourers will be paid additional payment till June. At present, the labourers are being paid Rs 115 as wages and 20 per cent additional payment will be done in February and 25 per cent in March. The additional amount will be 30 per cent in the months of April and May. Many MNREGS works have been designed to check labour migration from the district.