'MNREGA has potential to bring second green revolution'

The govt will take steps to reduce its shortcomings through the tools of modern communication and information, says Sonia Gandhi

Congress President Sonia Gandhi today strongly pitched for utilising MNREGA to increase agricultural production, saying the flagship scheme can play a big role to usher in second green revolution in India.

"I am of the belief that MNREGA has tremendous potential to increase agriculture production, which we have not been able to tap fully till date. There are many possibilities not only for creating community assets in villages but also providing irrigation facilities to small and marginalised farmers, developing land and promoting farming.

"Manifold increase in the produce of farmers can be made by connecting this scheme with the use of modern technologies in agriculture. There is no doubt that MNREGA can play a big role in fulfilling our dreams of second green revolution," Gandhi said at the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act conference here.

Acknowledging the challenges in proper implementation of the scheme, the UPA Chairperson said, "we frequently hear complaints of corruption and misutilisation of funds in this scheme. It is very essential to put a check on this."

The government will take steps to reduce its shortcomings through the tools of modern communication and information, she said while maintaining that it was necessary that social audits happened timely and according to norms.

In his inaugural address at the conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said 30 new works have already been added to the list of works permitted under MNREGA, whose focus is by and large on providing employment in rural areas mainly through agriculture.

Besides direct financial benefit, the scheme has given many indirect benefits to the people and brought down the migration graph, he said.

"MNREGA has brought momentum in the financial inclusion of our rural population. More than four crore accounts have been opened in banks while more than that have been opened in post offices. These accounts will assist us in reaching the incentives of the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme to the rural population," the Prime Minister said.