Telangana urges Centre to link MGNREGA to agriculture

With the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) creating shortage of farm labourers, Telangana on Friday urged the Centre to link the scheme to agriculture.

A resolution to this effect was passed at the plenary of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) at Kompally on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Chief Minister and TRS President K. Chandrasekhar Rao moved the resolution during his inaugural address and it was passed unanimously.

He said he would raise the demand during a meeting of NITI Aayog in New Delhi on Sunday.

Rao said the MGNREGA was creating shortage of farm workers during the crop season, causing problems for farmers.

He said while the central scheme proved beneficial and many works were undertaken, it also led to problems for farmers as they were not getting workers to work in fields during the crop season.

If the MGNREGA was linked to agriculture, the labourers under the scheme can be used for farming.

A Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)-KMPG report in 2015 said that schemes like MGNREGA have affected farm labour adversely in the country and can have a negative impact on productivity and prices.

According to the report, rural wages grew on average by 17 per cent since 2006-07 and outstripped urban wages while productivity has not increased.

It found that between 2004-05 and 2011-12, farm labour declined by around 30.57 million while the total size of the workforce kept rising.

The share of agri workforce during the same period declined from 56.7 per cent to 48.8 per cent.

--IANS

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