Centre puts spoke again, this time in rural jobs

Hyderabad: In yet another action that could dent rural employment in Telangana, the Central government raised objections to the works taken up by the Telangana government under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the benefit of farmers. Further, the Centre decided to deploy more Central teams to conduct a thorough scrutiny of the implementation of the scheme in 15 districts.

The Telangana government has been urging the union government to link MGNREGS with agriculture-related works which could further boost the growth of agriculture and its allied sectors. The State government argued that the agriculture sector was the largest employer in the country with less remuneration to those involved in the labour work.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has repeatedly argued as to why the union government should have similar guidelines for all the States which have different needs. It may be noted that the union government is not paying uniform wages for all the States. As per the Ministry of Rural Development, for 2022-23, the revised daily wage stands at Rs 331 in Haryana, Rs 311 in Kerala, Rs 315 in Goa, Rs 309 in Karnataka, Rs 257 in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and Rs 204 in Madhya Pradesh.

With no response from the Centre to its requests, the State government took up construction of Rythu Vedikas, foodgrain drying platforms, desiltation of minor irrigation tanks and trenches for minor canals in plain areas, among others, for the benefit of farmers in the State. However, a Central team of the Rural Development Ministry, which visited the State recently, found it objectionable.

In its preliminary report, the Central team felt that either these works were non-permissible or non-compliant with the existing guidelines in certain cases and works were split to take up specific labour works under MGNREGS. Further, it has decided to deploy more teams for thorough inspection of the MGNREGS works taken up in about 15 districts in the State.

Ironically, the said works were taken up by the State government over the last two-three financial years, but the Centre found it objectionable only during its recent inspection.