With reference to Sanjeeb Mukherjee's report, "Centre spends 22% more on MGNREGS in FY16" (June 29), given the drought-proofing capacity of the money allocated for the rural job scheme, accountability should be enforced strictly.
The main objective of the scheme should be the creation of productive rural assets such as water harvesting and watershed development, irrigation facilities, afforestation, protection of catchment areas and boosting of dryland agriculture. This will not only ensure food security and fodder availability but also restore ecological balance, crucial for preventing droughts, consequent distress migration and cattle sale to slaughter houses.
The track record of MGNREGS shows that it suffers from shortcomings such as tardy payment of wages, lack of decentralisation and a myopic focus on employment generation data. These problems need to be addressed.
Another drawback of the MGNREGS is that it weans agricultural labour away from farm activities such as weeding (especially for millets), ploughing and harvesting - all of which a small farmer has to do himself. This is pushing up labour costs and leading to debt for small farmers. There is a need to reduce these activities under the scheme so that a small farmer can cut costs.
CV Krishna Manoj, Hyderabad
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