No relief via flagship job scheme for drought-hit

NEW DELHI: The Centre may not heed calls from drought-hit state governments that want its flagship job guarantee programme to act as a stop-gap contingency plan for affected farmers, and would prefer to route relief efforts through an existing fund earmarked for such natural calamities.

���The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is designed to provide sustenance employment , not sustainable employment. It is not a replacement for normal economic activity or disaster relief,��� a senior official told ET, detailing the government stand. ���The higher the demand for work under NREGS, the greater the signal that the economy may be failing,��� said the official who is involved in the execution of the scheme, asking not to be named.

Ever since the southwest monsoon skipped parts of north India, state governments have been clamouring for central support with Uttar Pradesh reportedly asking for as much as Rs 80,000 crore to support farmers and workers in 47 drought-hit districts. Bihar, Uttarakhand , Punjab, Haryana and parts of Tamil Nadu are also affected by drought, leading to job losses in the farm sector.

A normal monsoon would have resulted in hectic sowing activity in these states, reducing the pressure on NREGS this season. But this time around, joblessness in the farm sector raised hopes that the Centre may widen the scope of the world���s largest job guarantee scheme to generate more unskilled work.

An official involved in executing the NREGS told ET that during this monsoon season, there may be increased demand for unskilled work, but during the whole year, it may only be marginally higher than last year���s .

In the July budget, the government had raised the NREGS allocation by Rs 9,000 crore from the original allocation in the interim budget to Rs 39,100 crore as the slowdown raised demand for unskilled jobs.