MNREGA
is flagship programme of government of India and if implemented in letter and
spirit then this law has potential to change, alter and revolutionize the rural
quarter. The MNREGA is a flagship programme of the Government of India that
guarantees employment to one adult member of the family for minimum hundred
days in rural areas. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA) is essentially demand driven scheme which provides employment to
labour. With implementation of MNREGA 2.0, it is aspired that drawbacks of
earlier times will be curtailed, minimized, and will be implemented in letter
and spirit.
A
basis of starting of NREGA is “development economics” and can be called as “Keynesian
Economics”. UPA I, came to power on slogan of “aam aadami” and had support of
Communist Parties, enacted this act which essentially based on welfare
principle. The Ministry of Rural Development’s (MORD) budget has increased
nearly 3-fold since FY 2006-07. In FY 2012-13, MORD allocations account for 14%
of GOI’s budget. In FY2012-13, MGNREGA allocations account for 36% of total
MORD budget. Recently Government has announced that MNREGA will be base of
second green revolution. This underlines the pivotal role of this act in all
welfare schemes.
“Ragnar Nurkse, had pointed out that capital
starved over-populated countries could build “social capital” in a big way by
employing the surplus labour on a variety of projects. He had listed schemes
concerning irrigation, drainage, roads, railways, housing, etc. In his view,
the only danger was the onset of inflation caused by the increased demand for
food and other wage goods,”[1] is
written by P.S.APPU is his article on MNREGA in The Hindu. India has surplus and
cheap labour which by this act is used for different productive purposes such
as WBM road, digging of ponds, irrigation works and plantation. These
activities are creating different assets in rural areas.Thus
MNREGA is the way by which employment can be generated in rural areas with
durable assets. It is often claimed by critics that MNREGA is nothing but
“white elephant” and public money is spend and thus money like any other social
security scheme is siphoned off to large extent. On other hand, supporters of
this act, ideologically left wing, always support this scheme as panacea, cure
and solution for all ills of rural India.
