‘Reframing NREGA a criminal neglect’

Abdul Hafees

27/10/2014

New Delhi: Seminar held at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi strongly condemned the attempts made by the Modi-government to reframe the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The new decision would only reduce its benefits and render people workless, said Nikhil De, social activist based in Delhi.

“The people who are below the poverty line who hardly get jobs in its primary stage receive only a minimum wage with no increment thereafter,” says De. “However, those, above the line lacking the basic livelihood means living in rural areas also feel they are neglected from the employment scheme whereas the government is not concerned about their situations as well,” he accused.

The NREGA employment scheme was passed in 2005 when the first UPA government was in power. The well-appreciated employment scheme, aimed at boosting “the livelihood security by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural house,” have further received much criticism for various forms of corruptions in a couple of states so far.

Nithin Ghadkari, Minister for Rural Development, had announced before that the government would consider revising the NREGA by limiting the number of its beneficiary villages from 645 to 200, and saving the required revenue for the machinery in terms of the work that has been done by employees, to stop the exploitation in this scheme’

“Minimising its beneficiaries is not the way to end corruption. It is a criminal neglect towards the work rights of the poor and destitute people, De added. The government should streamline the programme taking cognizant of the basic living means of the backward people living in remote areas,” De argued. “And the proceedings should be frequently verified in order to make it scam-free and ensure its expected outcome in different states of the country,” he added.

 De also asked why some senior journalists are in a hurry to jot down the impact of this scheme to a great extent, while at the same time they ignore the ample irregularities piled upon it.