'Work on land of dalit, tribal farmers to come under MGNREGS'

"The biggest programme that is run by our ministry is the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA and we have made a special provision that farmers who are dalit, tribals, small farmers....For the levelling and irrigation of their lands, money will be given through MGNREGA and the work would also be done under the same scheme," he said at a consultation on dalit land rights.

The Minister said that lakhs of dalit and adivasi families from several states would benefit from the scheme.

He said that in states like Andhra Pradesh dalits had been given land in several districts 30-40 years ago but most of this land was not arable. Land would be made suitable for cultivation.

There was a demand that there should be a component plan and tribal sub-plan to ensure that expenditure from government funds is made in proportion to population of different sections, Ramesh said.

The minister said a law in this regard has been passed in Andhra Pradesh and added that there had been a special mention that such a law should be passed at the national level too, in the recently concluded Congress' Jaipur session.