The rural development ministry is preparing for a big push to its flagship employment generation programme as drought has depressed demand for farm labour. The ministry has written to state governments asking them to identify development projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to ensure there's enough work available for those in need.
Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has already written to state chief ministers affected by deficient rainfall, asking them to prepare a list of new projects that could be incorporated in the MNREGA programme.
Ramesh is now touring drought-hit states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan with agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to assess the water scarcity situation.
While the all-India rainfall deficiency average at 21%, some states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan have been worse off with deficiencies as high as 64% and 78%.
Although allocation for NREGA was curtailed to Rs 33,000 crore this budget from Rs 40,000 crore in 2011-12, states have surplus left over from the previous year.
MNREGA has provided 5.50 crore families or nearly one in four rural households with over 250 crore person-days of work under the programme.
Delay in payments and leakages have, however, dented the scheme's initial popularity, which many attributed as one of the reasons for UPA's return to power in 2009.
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