With reference to the editorial, "Allocations for MGNREGS" (April 14), no doubt the world's largest rural jobs programme has rendered immense service by channelling a massive, idle workforce into participating in nation-building.
Also, compared to doles, wages earned through employment instil dignity, empathy, a sense of accomplishment, and enriches social ties among the employed.
The MGNREGS has also met the national goal of ensuring food security for vulnerable sections of society.
However, the job scheme has also had a negative effect. It has made farm labour scarce. Paying wages higher than those under MGNREGS to attract farm labour has made agriculture less remunerative than before.
The time has come to dovetail MGNREGS with private agricultural operations in such a way that proprietor-cultivators pay only 50 per cent of the wages for labour hired and the rest comes from the MGNREGS budget.
Ranjit Kumar Das Bhubaneswar
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