As part of its demand for giving states greater flexibility in the implementation of centrally sponsored schemes as per their regional requirements, the Kerala government has asked for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) guidelines to be modified to suit its requirements.
The Kerala government has urged the Centre to change the NREGA guidelines in view of the long monsoon season and scarcity of public land in the state. The allocation under NREGA should be allowed to be used for activities such as replanting perennial crops, development of land and water development activities for small and marginal farmers and collection of coconut husk, the state has argued.
Under the NREGA guideline, the works relating to mostly water conservation such renovation of traditional water bodies, digging of pond etc could be taken up. Besides rural connectivity or building of roads has been also given priority under NREGA, which guarantees at least 100 days of manual works for each rural households.
Minister for state of coal and statistics and programme implementation Sriprakash Jaiswal told Rajya Sabha on Monday that ?various state governments have been raising the matter of building in greater flexibility in the guidelines for Centrally Sponsored Schemes so as to be better able to meet the specific needs and conditions in each states.? At the National Development Council meeting in December 2008, Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia had requested all state chief ministers to provide specific suggestions for changing the guidelines for centrally sponsored schemes to ensure easier flow of resources to states.
The Kerala government has suggested that centrally sponsored schemes should insist only on broad objectives of the programme and allow the states to introduce flexibility in the norms. The NREGA guidelines were recently modified to include provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land development facilities to land owned by small and medium farmers.
Though Kerala can sanction NREGA works using the ?Other works? category under the scheme?s guidelines, it has called for specific inclusion of activities like collection of coconut husk by self-help groups like Kudumbasree.
The government has recently taken initiative to converge its flagship NREGA with other social sector programmes from agriculture, environment and water resources ministries would pull in financial and human resources aiming at greater impact and expansion of outreach.
In the first stage, a total of 115 pilot districts across 22 districts identified by the government for such convergence efforts. ?Convergence would bring in synergy between various government programmes in term of their planning, process and implementation,? an official said.