Rural job plan may be tampered with: Joshi
Thursday, 27/11/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141127/punjab.htm#14
Jalandhar : Blaming the BJP-led NDA government of being pro-corporate, Congress leader and former Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Dr CP Joshi said he was apprehensive that the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, would be tampered with to make it anti-poor.
Joshi was here to attend a conclave organised by the National Federation of MGNREGA Workers at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall today. He said he had got some very important provisions incorporated into the Act, but these were not being complied with in many states. To ensure that the daily wages of those working under the scheme were revised annually, he had got it linked to the consumer price index. This meant that the wages would be enhanced depending on the inflation on the first of April every year, he said.
He said there was no proper implementation of the scheme in Punjab as big landlords here were getting adversely affected. "If properly implemented, labourers would get 100 days of guaranteed employment at Rs 200 or so per day. In that scenario, they tend to face shortage of labourers. The labourers who are being lowly paid would also seek higher wages. Clearly, the scheme is not being properly run to benefit the big farmers," he said.
Asked if there were any penal provisions for not implementing the Act properly, he said the powers were vested in the state. He said, "I have learnt that Punjab does not even have a state council to monitor the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme. Setting up a council and having district-level committees for getting feedback locally is also provided in the Act. We did that quite effectively in Rajasthan."
