Govt planning to `converge' schemes to generate more jobs





NEW DELHI: Realising the vote-garnering potential of social sector schemes which ensured UPA's victory, the government is set to re-draw the

contours of its flagship NREGS by converging the entire gamut of "similar" rural development programmes to generate more employment avenues.



Sources said the government was working on a proposal to bring out Convergibility Guidelines to strengthen the flagship scheme to ensure livelihood opportunities to rural masses.



Planning Commission, which is working with rural development ministry to finalise the guidelines, argues that the proposal will help the government meet the demand for hike in wages and increase in employment days assured to each household under NREGS.



The proposal of converging NREGS with other schemes will allow the government to increase wages and raise the number of days of employment to households, newly-appointed plan panel member Mihir Shah said.



According to sources, the guidelines would allow funding a component of one flagship scheme from another like for building a house under Indira Awas Yojana, the labour component can be provided through NREGS which will facilitate generation of more employment avenues without much additional burden on the government exchequer.

Plan panel is also keen to implement the flagship programme more vigorously in states like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan where job demand is high.



"We should be looking more at implementing NREGS in those states where the demand for it is more, especially in the central Indian states," Shah said.



In its second innings, UPA wants to improve the implementing mechanism by pushing aggressive reforms in governance to ensure that benefits of the scheme reach the rural masses.



"We should embark on aggressive reforms in governance in the 200 most backward districts or even better in 1,000 most backward blocks," Shah said.



The plan panel is of the view that merely pumping money through direct cash transfers is not enough. Shah, assigned to look after rural development in the commission, said it was crucial to ensure that funds were translated into concrete results by putting appropriate mechanisms in place.



"The need is to deploy high quality manpower and transparent accountability system that will ensure accountability and stakeholder participation," Shah said.