HYDERABAD: Telangana set a record in the implementation of VB-G RAM G on Tuesday, providing employment to over five lakh persons on a single day. This marked a sharp rise in demand for rural employment due to the drought conditions caused by the El Nino weather system.
The panchayat raj and rural development department said it had provided employment to 5,00,166 persons on Tuesday, nearly double the previous record of 2.54 lakh on October 8.
The average daily attendance during October this year stood at 2.16 lakh, compared with just 24,750 in October last year, indicating the severity of the El Nino impact.
Nalgonda district topped the state with employment to 53,280 persons, followed by 27,296 (Medak), Siddipet (23,845), Vikarabad (23,731), Sangareddy (22,222), Kamareddy (21,178), Jatial (18,918), Nirmal (18,300).
Seventeen other districts provided employment ranging from 10,000 to 17,000 workers, and five districts provided employment to fewer than 10,000 each.
A total of 2,54,812 workers reported for work on a single day in October 8, the highest single-day attendance recorded since the inception of the employment guarantee programme.
The improvement was particularly significant against the backdrop of the average daily attendance in October during the previous five years. It stood at 1.28 lakh in 2021, 80,000 in 2022, 1.23 lakh in 2023 and 32,000 in 2024.
The VB-G RAM G Act, 2025, which replaced MGNREGA, provides a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment per rural household in a financial year. The state government wants to use the programme not merely as a source of wage employment but also as an instrument for strengthening rural infrastructure and natural resource conservation.
Minister Danasari ‘Seethakka’ Anasuya on Tuesday congratulated officials on the achievement and directed them to sustain the momentum by generating more person-days. She said employment generation should go hand in hand with water conservation, development of village water resources and creation of durable rural infrastructure.
The minister instructed officials to identify works based on the specific requirements of each village and prepare plans to ensure continuous availability of employment for rural labourers. She emphasised that the programme should pursue three objectives simultaneously: providing livelihood security to workers, conserving water resources and creating permanent assets that would benefit villages in the long term.
She called for priority to be given to rainwater harvesting, development of water bodies and strengthening of rural infrastructure. Effective implementation of these works would provide financial support to poor rural households while contributing to sustainable village development, she said.
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