New fiscal to see more allocation for MGNREGS

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 6 (IANS) Financial allocation for the rural job guarantee scheme MGNREGS will be increased in the new fiscal, union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said Tuesday.

This was the second meeting on the issue and the third and final will take place in Patna later this month, he told reporters here, after a meeting with six state ministers.

"Once that (meeting) is over, we will look into all the suggestions that have been made and would look at what needs to be done to make it better. For this fiscal year, Rs.34,000 crore was set aside for the scheme and for the next fiscal this will go up further," he said.

He also said that more departments, including agriculture, irrigation and forestry, will be linked to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to make it more effective.

"The ministers put forward their requests. While some of them spoke about modifying the scheme to make it more flexible, others requested to increase the present 60:40 labour to material component to create quality assets," he said.

The rural development minister ruled out speculations that the total number of blocks that this programme cover would be reduced.

"Nothing of that sort (reduction) will happen. About 2,500 blocks in the country, where development is suffering, will get more attention. The remaining 4,000 blocks would run this programme as it is," he said.

Kerala Minister for Rural Development K.C. Joseph said this was for the first time since the scheme was launched that the central government had given a positive response.

"We have put forward that the scheme should have changes to include segments like animal husbandry, and traditional industries like handloom and coir. Not only can employment be generated through the scheme but also the production in these sectors," said Joseph.

MGNREGS has seen about Rs.2,000 crore being pumped into Kerala in the past three years.