YSR Congress Party today said the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh is deflating the NREGS by not meeting to the demands of the striking employees but providing job guarantee to the party workers by issuing special government orders in the constituencies where by-elections are due. Talking to reporters here, party official spokesperson Gattu Ramachandra Rao said nearly 30,000 field staff who monitor the NREGS are on strike from March 24 seeking job security and the State government without having least concern against them had issued GOs for taking up works under special packages where the assembly seats fell vacant with the disqualification of MLAs defying the party whip.
The field staff who are recruited to help in implementing the NREGS benefiting about 30 lakh persons. The people who are instrumental in implementing the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have no job security. The State, which was on the top among the country during YSR’s regime in implementing the national scheme, has lost its credibility and the Centre was forced to cut down the budget allocation even, he said. The State Congress on the other hand, he said, has issued GOs under special packages and architected it meticulously to see to it that each work do not exceed Rs five lakh, otherwise it has to call for tenders. Since the works are less than the stipulated amount, it can be allotted on nomination basis to provide employment to Congress workers ahead of the by-polls, he said. Citing a few examples, Mr Rao said, GOs were issued to take up works at Ramachandrapuram to a tune of Rs 1.45 crore and at Nasampeta, works worth Rs 4.05 crore were on offer. The special GOs were aimed at appeasing the local before the notification to by-polls whire imminent in the couple of months, he said. He alleged that the State has been very adamant as works were not been properly allocated nor payment made on time to the 1.02 crore workforce.
During the YSR period, Andhra Pradesh was lauded as a model state across the country for the implementation of the scheme and the social audit. The Kiran Kumar Reddy government has not been paying minimum wages nor allocating the works regularly, he alleged and said that the State Government should concede to the demands of the contract workers who were assigned to carry out the Central schemes. The YSR Congress leader said he expressed solidarity with the employees who are on strike. UNI