Rural job scheme to help railways expand

Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today announced a partnership between Indian Railways and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in his budget speech. "I thank (Minister of Rural Development) Jairam Ramesh for agreeing to the railways' request to partner in some of the rail-related activities under MGNREGS," he said.

Bansal confirmed the railways' partnership with MGNREGS for regular maintenance of its railway tracks, afforestation and building approach roads.

The railways minister had earlier written to Ramesh saying that he wanted MGNREGA workers to work for the railways in far-off areas which would "expedite its projects and fulfil the need of regular maintenance of tracks and development of adjoining land."

He said the railways could look at sharing cost for the labour input provided by MGNREGS.

"A number of our projects in the railways, including regular maintenance, require unskilled labour forces. Most of such works are connected with earthwork, construction and maintenance of embankments, cuttings, trenching, filling, developing water ways and clearing vegetational growth," Bansal said in his letter.

Bansal suggested that various works connected with the railways should be notified to be done under various schemes of MGNREGS and project identification should be undertaken jointly at the level of district magistrates and railways officers.

Railway engineers would help gram panchayats in developing estimates of the work and in training workers, his letter said.

In his reply, Ramesh agreed to the proposal and has asked the railway ministry to identify works involving digging of trenches, approach roads, afforestation and similar tasks that come under the list of permissible works under MGNREGS.