Niti Forms Sub-Group of CMs to Link Agri, NREGS
The Niti Aayog has formed a sub-group of chief ministers to frame policy for greater synergy between agriculture and the Centre’s flagship rural jobs scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday in a full meeting of the Aayog suggested that a committee of chief ministers be formed to suggest ways of using NREGS to create durable farm assets that help double incomes of farmers and reduce agrarian distress.
The high-level group, comprising chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, and NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand, will have to submit its recommendations in three months. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be the convener of the committee. “The move comes in the backdrop of the vision of the Prime Minister towards doubling farmers’ income by 2022 which requires a multi-dimensional and inclusive approach,” Niti Aayog said in a statement on Tuesday.
The committee is expected to suggest a wider choice of state specific interventions both for pre-sowing and post-harvest to increase the thrust on incomes, water conservation and waste to wealth. Besides, it will recommend ways to align works under MGNREGA fully to the requirements of achieving the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, with thrust on water conservation, individual beneficiary schemes, construction of rural haats, vermi-composting, etc. The committee is also likely to make recommendations on interventions of MGNREGA that can facilitate reduction of agrarian distress.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 20th June 2018
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