Disputes over land may derail jobs law plan

A land dispute with the environment and forests ministry has come in the way of implementation of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.

During a recent meeting, state rural development ministers complained that local forest officials were opposing several rural employment projects as those were being planned on forest land, said Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

"The main work to be initiated under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) is of creating small check dams and other small irrigation works. State after state have complained that their projects are not being approved due to disputes with the forest department," he said.

Singh said many catchment areas were on forest land, which was creating the problem. "There seems to be no point in making check dams in non-catchment areas," he said. Especially Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh complained of this problem.

"I have decided to meet the environment and forests minister to resolve the problem," he said. This is not the only problem the scheme is grappling with. States like Jharkhand have said due to the weak nature of their panchayati raj institutions, the implementation of the programme is a problem.

Several states have not yet prepared the five-year perspective plan required for the scheme to be implemented. Needless to say the original deadline of October 2 will not be met. An alternate deadline of November 14 has been suggested.

In fact, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered to write to all chief ministers to submit their five-year perspective plans to give the programme necessary momentum. "If the Prime Minister writes to chief ministers, it will prod them to do the required leg work, and fast," said Singh.

According to Singh, perspective plans have been prepared by many states, through diverse agencies like IIT Kharagpur and National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderababd for Andhra Pradesh and the Agricultural Finance Corporation.

"We are not worried about the delay but we want to be so well prepared that the programme is a success," he said.