NREGA a major contributor to rural employment, says Chittoor Collector

District Collector Sumit Kumar on Friday said that 2.8 lakh families were issued job cards under the NREGA in Chittoor, while 1.54 lakh households were actively involved in the scheme.

Addressing a press conference here, after reviewing the progres and upcoming initiatives under the MGNREGA, the Collector highlighted that the scheme had changed the landscape of the rural employment and contributed a lot to the infrastructure development across the district.

Mr. Sumit Kumar said that as many as 85.77 lakh man-days were generated for the current year, contributing significantly to rural employment. An additional ₹221.38 crore had been disbursed as wages, with an average daily wage of ₹259.93 per worker. As part of the infrastructure development, as many as 2039 famiilies had benefitted through housing programme, while substantial progress was registered in construction of farm ponds and laying of new roads.

The Collector said that athe NREGA has come to support 4,741 women under self-help groups (SHGs), besides empowering them in the form of livelihood opportunities.

For the year 2025-26, the NREGA programme would extensively focus on housing for the rural poor, construction of farm ponds, and working on groundwater recharge projects. “A total of 939 wells are under construction for drinking water in the district, along with 924 farm ponds. Further plans include construction of 12,984 soak pits across 700 villages,” he said.

Mr. Sumit Kumar said that the district administration has prioritized afforestation projects and flood mitigation works through soil conservation. “The wage for the NREGA workers has been revised to ₹307 per day,” he said, reiterating the dedication to rural development infrastructure building.