Lucknow, Feb 17 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is all set to cross the target of generating 40 crore mandays of jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) by the end of current financial year.

According to the government spokesman, the state has already generated 35.47 crore mandays of jobs under the scheme that played a key role in construction of toilets, digging of ponds and other construction activities, bringing development to the villages.

The scheme has helped in providing jobs to lakhs of migrants who returned to the state following the lockdown.

The government spokesperson said the emphasis on development of villages bore fruits as it served the dual purpose of development and employment generation. He said over 56,000 community toilets were built, as many as 19,951 ponds were dug, while construction of 18,206 animal shelters, 15,441 anganwadi centres and rejuvenation of 25 rivers took place.

Records show that over one crore labourers of 85 lakh families in 74 districts of the state were given work under MGNREGA in the current financial year as compared to 53 lakh families during 2019-20.

The spokesperson said that initial MGNREGA target was fixed at 26 crore mandays in 2020-21 which got surpassed by nine crore mandays motivating the government to revise it upward to 40 crore mandays by March 2021.

A total of Rs 7,303 crore has been paid as the wages to MGNREGA workers during 2020-21 so far against the expenditure of Rs 9,717 crore.