Rajasthan touch to revamped NREGS

JAIPUR: The revamped National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the flagship programme of the UPA, mooted by the Centre in the budget is a replica of the model launched by the Rajasthan after Ashok Gehlot government came to power.
Though Mukherjee has not acknowledged it, the concept is already in vogue in the state as part of a total reorientation of the scheme.
Mukherjee announced that a pilot project of convergence of NREGS with other schemes relating to agriculture, forests, water resources, land resources and rural roads would be launched. He said the project would be launched as a pilot project in 115 districts in the country. Rajasthan, being the generator of the scheme, is expected to benefit in a big way.
The state government had already taken the concept of convergence of NREGS with other departments. The ambitious Harit Rajasthan' project is also a part of the initiative in convergence with the forest department.
A rural development department official said, "The logic behind the concept was that while the rural development department has plenty of money with lot of schemes, they are lacking in expertise and technical personnel to execute them other than manual works. While some departments like forests, agriculture, water resources have not much money coming their way resulting in their employees are underutilised." Their expertise could be utilised in the work carried out under the NREGS, he said.
Besides, in the initial years of NREGS, the emphasis was on labour-intensive projects like construction of roads. Since such work could not be sustained for a long time, the department had to switch over to work of some permanent nature which requires technical expertise, added the official.
So officials favour convergence of the scheme with other departments which were having technical expertise and skilled personnel. The state government in principle had decided that roads construction under the scheme would be carried out by the PWD to maintain quality while the emphasis on creating permanent assets. Similarly, the plantation works could be executed through the forest department while irrigation and agriculture department would chip in for the water conservation projects.
"The allocation of Rs 39,100 crore would provide the much need impetus to the creation of rural infrastructure and employment," said Rajasthan minister for rural development and panchyati raj, Bharat Singh. Rajasthan has been on top in the implementation of the scheme.