Flexibility in MGNREGA wages needed: Raghuvansh

New Delhi: Former Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, credited with launch of UPA flagship programme MGNREGA ( Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), has expressed dissatisfaction over fixing wage at Rs 100 per day and demanded that there be flexibility in deciding the amount. The RJD vice-president also suggested convening mandatory meeting of gram sabha under district collector to keep tab over execution of the scheme in that area. Singh, whose party RJD is providing outside support to UPA-II, said that there should be flexibility in setting up wages under the MGNREGA. “The wage rate should have been determined on the basis of hours of work, job profile and geographical location,” he said, maintaining that the same yardstick in different locale does not have any rationale. [caption id=“attachment_115842” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Raghuvansh Prasad Singh accused Nitish Kumar for faulty implementation of MGNREGA.”]  [/caption] “I had resisted the idea put forth by many economists during my tenure but UPA-II made it part of its election manifesto,” the former rural development minister told PTI. “How can you compare work of a labourer in plain and in difficult hilly terrain,” he questioned. On the issue of monitoring the UPA government’s flagship scheme, Singh emphasised on the role of gram sabha in keeping a tab on the functioning of the programme. “I have advised compulsory convening of gram sabha meeting for MGNREGA scheme to Jairam Ramesh who has promised to look into it,” Singh added. Like the regular meetings of Lok Sabha and state assemblies, there should also be mandatory meeting of the gram sabha, he said. This would increase people participation in the scheme as well help in checking corruption in the running of the programme, he said. Singh favoured extending the ambitious rural employment scheme in the farm sector to address the problem of labour shortage particularly during sowing and harvesting period in Punjab, Haryana and other agri regions. “I had mooted the proposal that while the government should pay 50 per cent of the wage to agricultural labourer the rest be provided by the owner of the field,” he said adding he could not implement it as his tenure had come to an end. The RJD leader made a scathing attack on Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for “faulty” implementation of MGNREGA in the state. “While a comparatively less populated state like Rajasthan has spent Rs 8500 crore in 2010-11 under MGNREGA, Bihar, a more populous state with almost 42 per cent people under the BPL list, could spend only Rs 1800 crore during the period,” he said. PTI