Mukherjee, Pawar, Montek want it widened; announcement possible on Rajiv’s birthday.
Scanty rainfall and drought in much of the country has got the Union government to mull the repackaging of its flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
The government is likely to announce some changes in the scheme, to widen its scope, on Thursday, birthday anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, the late prime minister.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee wants more water conservation projects to be taken up under this scheme, while Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar are batting for an increase in the number of guaranteed job days.
Bihar chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who met Pawar today with a demand for a Rs 23,000-crore relief package for his state, also asked for removal of the 100-day cap in the NREGS. According to agriculture ministry sources, Pawar is also eager to see this happen. He is also in favour of inclusion of agricultural labour as NREGS work. Under the NREGS, the government is currently bound to provide a minimum of 100 days of employment in a year to a member of a family living below the poverty line (BPL).
Interestingly, leaving aside its political battle against the Narendra Modi-run Gujarat government, the Congress and the UPA government have lauded the Gujarat model of utilising NREGS. In his meeting with the chief ministers on the drought situation on Monday, Pranab Mukherjee cited the work done by the Gujarat government on creation and restoration of water bodies. The government may fix a target for all states to spend on creation and restoration of water bodies.
Gujarat had adopted a unique way of converging schemes under its water resource department with the NREGS, taking up projects on rain harvesting and group irrigation wells. In his Budget speech, Mukherjee also emphasised on convergence of various other schemes relating to agriculture, forests, water resources and rural development.
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The Expenditure Statement for Works for FY 2009-2010 of the NREGS shows the Gujarat government has earmarked 6,436 projects of water conservation and harvesting and 2,054 works of renovation of traditional water bodies out of the total of 17,992 works undertaken during this period.
Meanwhile, one of the key players in the implementation of the NREGS, the Planning Commission, has also sought a raise in the number of job days under the scheme, to enable rural households get alternative employment for loss of income due to a poor monsoon. "We have to see whether the 100 days limit is adequate. If it is not adequate, we can increase it temporarily," Montek Singh Ahluwalia recently said.
According to an agriculture ministry report, the total area under paddy has declined from 21.6 million hectares to 15.6 million hectares as of July 27. “Besides paddy, production of crops like bajra, coarse cereals and sugarcane have also declined.”