PM: NREGA only way to help landless poor

Brushing aside farmers concern about NREGAs role in increasing agricultural wages,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said his governments flagship right to work programme can be a silver bullet for rural revival as the rising manual labour opportunities it provides are the only way to help the landless poor in rural India.

The combined effect of expanded agricultural production,demand for labour from the construction sector and the effect of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has led to a tightening of the market for agricultural labour and a steady rise in real wages. Farmers sometimes complain about this. But rising demand for labour is the only way to help the landless improve their standard of living, Singh said after releasing MGNREGA Sameeksha,an anthology of studies on the NREGA published by the Rural Development Ministry.

The NREGA,the anthology claims,has generated about 1,200 crore workdays of unskilled manual jobs,at a cost of over Rs 1.66 lakh crore,since its launch in 2006.

The scheme,given its record at generating unskilled manual labour,has the potential to become a silver bullet for rural revival,Singh said,urging Panchayati Raj institutions to gear up for its effective implementation. Panchayati Raj institutions have to gear up to play the central role assigned to them and we have to provide resources to equip panchayats to perform these functions effectively. If these bodies can rise to the challenge,NREGA can very well become a silver bullet for Indias rural renewal, he said.

Singh stressed that despite its potential of becoming the spearhead of rural transformation,the scheme faced quite a few challenges.