Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to the food ministry?s proposal for providing grain as part-payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
?The work carried out under the food-for-work programme was really of bad quality and we do not want to repeat the same mistake,? Ramesh said after getting Parliament nod for the changes in NREGA, which allows atleast 30 new works to be taken up under the mega job-guarantee scheme.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in Parliament on Monday that the rural development ministry was working on a proposal for giving grain to NREGA workers as part of their wages.
?I support the food minister’s view of curtailing food subsidy through giving excess grain stocks to NREGA workers as wage. However, we need to learn from shortcomings of the food-for-work programme where there was not only massive pilferage of grain but also the assets created were of inferior quality,? Ramesh said.
As first reported by FE on Monday, the country?s grain stocks held with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government-owned procuring agencies crossed an all-time record of 71 million tonne at the start of this month, mainly due to the record rice and wheat procurement. FCI has grain storage capacity of only 61 million tonne.
The National Food for Work Programme was launched in November 2004 in 150 most-backward districts of the country, identified by the Planning Commission, which aimed at generating supplementary wage employment and providing food security through community assets. Subsequently, the programme was merged with NREGA.
Most of the 30 new works included under NREGA relate to agriculture and allied sectors, which is expected to get a boost from the mega job-guarantee scheme where every rural household is provided with at least 100 days of manual work annually.
The new works are mostly in the agriculture and allied sectors, such as creation of poultry and goat shelter, fisheries in the seasonal water bodies and rehabilitation of minors and field channels to main dam for increasing irrigation potential.
The new works were included on the recommendation of a committee headed by Planning Commission member Mihir Shah in February where it suggested greater synergy between the scheme and rural livelihood, especially in the agriculture and allied sectors.
Ruling out agriculture minister?s Sharad Pawar?s contention that NREGA work should be stopped during peak sowing and harvesting season, Ramesh said: ?For supporting the agriculture sector, we have approved a series of works for supporting the livestocks sector, besides promotion of fisheries and poultry, which is so crucial to the rural economy.?