Committee to examine using MNREGA in agriculture

New Delhi, June 17 (IANS) The Central government is mulling to link MNREGA with the agriculture sector in a way that the rural employment scheme and the demands of labour in agriculture complement each other, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said here on Sunday.

The government has formed a seven-member committee of the Chief Ministers to examine the feasibility of the idea and the way to implement it, he said.

"The committee would examine the feasibility of using the employment generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in agriculture related activities both pre-harvest and post-harvest," Rajiv Kumar said.

The committee, headed by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and comprising his counterparts Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Vijay Rupani (Gujarat), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), N. Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Pawan Chamling (Sikkim), would be notified on Monday. 

Under MNREGA, the Central government has to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed employment involving unskilled manual work in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand.