Ex-minister wants more teeth to MNREGA

Buoyed by the success of the rural job scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in the last 10 years, former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has suggested to incorporate a new clause “mazdoor guarantee” in the scheme.

Raghuvansh, who was Union Rural Development minister when UPA’s flagship programme was launched amid much fanfare in 2006, said the need to add a fresh clause was all the more necessary as it will check scarcity of farm workers. “Because of the successful implementation of the MNREGA and timely payment to the job card holders, nowadays labourers don’t want to work in private farmers’ land. This has created scarcity of farm workers. Now my suggestion is that the Centre should make necessary additions in the act and make provisions for “mazdoor guarantee” to the farmers,” he said.

A grassroots leader, who earlier represented the Vaishali Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar in UPA-I and UPA-II, Raghuvansh said if the Centre paid heed to his suggestion, then it will serve dual purpose. First, the farmers will get labourers to work in their farm land, and secondly, it will check the growing animosity between the farmers and workers/labourers. Dwelling at length about the success of the MNREGA, former minister said of the Rs 3.14 lakh crore spent in the last 10 years, Rs 2.75 lakh crore was deposited in the bank accounts of the job card holders, “which shows how the scheme has given the rural economy a boost.”