States advised to add rain shortfall in MGNREGS budget

New Delhi: The government has asked 25 states that received less than 75% rainfall during the monsoon to factor in the deficit while preparing the labour budget for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in FY18. According to data analysed by the agriculture ministry, 155 districts in 25 states received less than 75% of the long period average rainfall between June and September 2016. States have also been issued a set of detailed guidelines for natural resource management under the programme during the next fiscal.
The 155 districts identified as critical blocks would not be allowed to undertake construction of dug wells and private wells under the employment guarantee scheme in next year’s labour budget. Farmers will have to reach a formal agreement in these areas for sharing water from a well built under the scheme. The rural development ministry has converged the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana and the Integrated Watershed Management Programme with MGNREGS to prevent over utilisation of groundwater and create technically viable water conservation projects under the programme. About 45% of the net sown area is currently under irrigation. The government has identified 112 most irrigation deprived districts in the country where natural resource management will be on mission mode next year.

“We will start a comprehensive assessment of the watershed management in a gram panchayat and plan the works in a cluster approach... Idea is to create sustainable livelihood through natural resource management,” a senior official said. This year MGNREGS stressed on construction of over 8 million farm ponds as a droughtproofing measure and to create productive assets as part of the scheme. Early on this fiscal, states were asked to set targets in terms of number of farm ponds and wells that would be built in their labour budget. Various states were even told to ramp up their plans to create adequate drought-proofing structures.

“That was a start… we now want to make a well thought through effort converging all our resources to ensure that assets we create are made scientifically and enhance land productivity,” the senior government official said. The programme allows 153 kinds of work, of which 71are water related. During FY16, more than half of MGNREGS expenditure was incurred on such activities. In FY17 so far, 63% of expenditure has been on water-related works. In May, the Supreme Court had come down heavily on the Centre for failing to provide adequate relief to drought-hit states. Following this, the Centre had immediately released `23,000 crore to the states, writing off all pending wage liability.