more-in Thiruvananthapuram district accounted for the highest number of work days in the State under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in 2017-18 financial year. The district is also in first place in ensuring jobs for the highest number of families and in providing wages to unskilled labourers. These achievements were made over the past six months, as the district lagged behind all others in these aspects in November last. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, district panchayat president V.K. Madhu said an amount of ?228.08 crore had been spent this year under the scheme. Of this, ?206.55 crore has been spent on wages for unskilled labourers. A total of 77.41 lakh work days were created for 1,58,725 families. He said 9,879 families had got 100 or more days of employment. “This money has reached the common people in the district. It would bring about a change in society. The district was lagging behind in all these aspects. We reworked the strategy and brought about a few changes at the top, which delivered results. A major complaint regarding MGNREGS works is that nothing productive or tangible is created. But, based on a clear master plan, we have used their work to create assets,” said Mr. Madhu. A major portion of the work was in the field of water and soil conservation, as part of the district panchayat’s Jalashree project. With a view to conserving rainwater for the summer, 2,048 farm ponds have been created, which can hold 3,72,000 kilolitres of water in total. “Most of the farm ponds are in private properties. But we have an agreement with them so that the public can make use of it. Coir geotextile from Coirfed has been used to strengthen the sides of these ponds, to prevent erosion,” said K. Chandrasekharan Nair, Joint Development Commissioner and Joint Programme of Co-ordinator of the MGNREGA activities in the district. In addition, 1,142 wells have been recharged. Some 432 public ponds had been renovated and 50,977 rainwater pits had been created. As part of the project to plant and nurture saplings, 20.87 lakh tree saplings have been produced in 602 nurseries across the 73 grama panchayats. Much of these will be planted in public places. The rest will be distributed to schools and institutions to be planted on the World Environment Day on June 5.

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