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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Heat takes a toll on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers -V Kamalakara Rao

Heat takes a toll on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers -V Kamalakara Rao

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published Published on Apr 26, 2014   modified Modified on Apr 26, 2014
-The Times of India

 

VISAKHAPATNAM: The deadly duo of scorching heat and poll fever is taking its toll on the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the three north coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam.

According to the reports, while nearly 400 NREGS workers have fallen sick in the last two weeks due to their punishing double duty under extreme weather conditions -- NREGS works and election campaigning, one worker succumbed to heat stroke earlier this week in Srikakulam district. Last summer too the soaring mercury had claimed the lives of 18 workers in the region, but almost all the deaths were reported only in the month of May.

According to the officials, 55-year-old NREGS worker Puthi Dandasi of Guggili gram panchayat in Jalumur mandal died on Monday after he fell unconscious while working on a project under the scheme on his village's outskirts.

"Though an 108 ambulance rushed him to the nearby area hospital at Narasannapeta and he was referred to the Rajiv Institute of Medical Sciences at Srikakulam town, the doctors declared him brought dead due to sunstroke," confirmed A Kalyan Chakravarthy, project director, Srikakulam District Water Management Agency (DWMA), which takes care of NREGS at the district level.

A senior DWMA official from Visakhapatnam district blamed the polls for the rising heat stroke cases among NREGS workers. "Because of politicians offering Rs 300-500 per day for campaigning, which is far more than what they received NREGS works, many workers are going campaigning in addition to doing their regular NREGS work. Working overtime under extreme weather conditions is having an adverse impact on their health and even causing death in some instances," the officer said, adding that apart from campaigning, NREGS workers are also being wooed by politicians because they comprise a substantial vote bank.

According to DWMA officials, there are nearly 15 lakh job card holders engaged in work under NREGS in 115 mandals. As many as 3,154 field executives monitor the workers, including the provision of emergency services such as medical aid to the workers. "Generally, an NREGS beneficiary receives a maximum of Rs 163 per day for working an average of nearly four hours. In the last two weeks, the maximum amount has only reached Rs 108. The payment is not made based on the time spent but the quantity of work completed by the worker," said Visakhapatnam DWMA project director, R Sriramulu Naidu.

On the other hand, DWMA officials from Vizianagaram district said that the polls and rising temperatures has forced them the change the NREGS work timings 6.30 am to 10.30 am and 4 pm to 6 pm and they will be in force till the end of summer, either in the first or second week of June.

"We have changed the work timings keeping in view of the hot weather and also give them ample time to rest at the work site if any of them falls sick. We follow these rules every summer," said Vizianagaram DWMA project director MV Govinda Rajulu.


The Times of India, 25 April, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Heat-takes-a-toll-on-Mahatma-Gandhi-National-Rural-Employment-Guarantee-Scheme-workers/articleshow/34170308.cm


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