Centre rules out extension of MGNREGA to agricultural activities

The assertion comes after the Centre ordered recovery of ₹ 151 crore from PIAs in Telangana

The Central Government has ruled out inclusion of agricultural activities under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

“Works which are non-tangible, not measurable, repetitive such as removing grass, pebbles, agricultural activities shall not be taken up,” Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said, quoting Para 4(3) of Schedule I of the MGNREGA. She was replying to a query by BRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Th reply assumes significance as the Union Ministry had ordered for recovery of ₹ 151 crore by the Telangana Government from project implementation authorities concerned for misappropriation of funds released for the scheme. The Union Minister also ruled out extension of the scheme to urban areas claiming “MGNREA is applicable for rural areas and its implementation in urban areas is beyond the purview of the Act.”

According to the provision of the Act, the beneficiaries were entitled to get wage payment within 15 days of closure of muster roll of the work. The Central Government had issued a detailed standard operating procedure to the State to ensure timely wage payment. The Union Ministry, along with the States/Union Territories, was making concerted efforts for improving the timely payment of wages and the States/Union Territories had been advised to generate pay orders in time.

This had resulted in considerable improvement in the status of timely generation of pay order and leading to improvement in the actual time taken to credit wages into the workers’ accounts. “In the current financial year (as on December 8), the percentage of payment generated within 15 days is 95.43,” she said.