Lok Satta wants NREGS linkage with agriculture

The Lok Satta Party today suggested that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) be extended to cover the crisis-ridden agriculture and allied sectors.

In a media statement, Lok Satta Party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma said that a 42 percent increase in wages in Andhra Pradesh (against 19 percent at the national level) following implementation of the MGNREGS has caused undue hardship to farmers. With agriculture becoming a losing proposition because of the escalation in the costs of cultivation and depressed market prices, a number of farmers in Andhra Pradesh have declared a crop holiday this khariff.

The Union Government, which is planning to tweak the scheme, could link it up with farming and take it up as a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh to provide some relief to farmers and tenants.

Mr. Varma said that the Government should also encourage mechanization of agriculture especially in small holdings.