The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State seeks amendments to NREGP guidelines

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Sunday, Mar 02, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State seeks amendments to NREGP guidelines

N.J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union budget proposal to extend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) to 596 rural districts in the country would have the desired impact in the State only if the guidelines for augmenting paddy cultivation were amended.

Local Administration Department sources told The Hindu that the government had submitted a proposal to amend the guidelines to suit the needs of the State, mainly the agriculture sector. There were complaints that the rigid guidelines impeded local self-government institutions (LSGIs) and project functionaries from taking up work on increasing paddy cultivation. The thrust of the scheme was on watershed-based development on government land as well as holdings of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Though the guidelines were far-sighted and drawn up with a view to checking deforestation and drought and thus supporting agriculture, the conditions in the State were not conducive for implementing them as such. Hence, the government had sought changes in the guidelines. As the scope of the programme has been widened, the demand has become more relevant, it is felt.

Scarcity of land is one of the major problems in the State. The Scheduled Castes and Tribes do not own vast tracts of land. Getting government land in the rural districts where the scheme has been implemented too is a difficult proposition. The Centre should permit LSGIs to take up work on the land owned by small and medium farmers to enhance paddy cultivation. Waiver of loans of farmers who have 2 hectares of land can be followed in the case of NREGP too, sources said. The rigid guidelines are feared to have a debilitating effect on paddy cultivation. Men working paddy fields in Palakkad district are paid Rs.110 and women Rs.60 a day against the daily wages of Rs.125 to those enrolled under the programme. Hence, agricultural labourers now preferred to work under the scheme and were not keen on working in paddy fields. If paddy cultivation too was brought within the ambit of the programme, it would boost rice production and provide sustained employment to agricultural labourers, sources said.

The urban-rural divide too was fast dwindling in the State. Hence, the State government should have a prime role in selecting the districts. Before going ahead with the proposal, the Centre should take the State government into confidence to have the optimum results, sources said.

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