Every effort needs to be made to reform MGNREGA, as it has been both a major success and a huge failure. The best way for this is to study carefully the conditions that made it a success and also to undertake a diagnostics of its failures

An impression has gained ground in recent weeks that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre is inimical to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Part of the reason for this is the notion that this was a “partisan” programme benefitting only a certain political dispensation. The short history of the programme makes it clear that this is patently untrue. Indeed, some of the best work under MGNREGA has happened in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled States.

This year, the National Award for Leadership in MGNREGA Implementation went to the Government of Chhattisgarh. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh is a strong votary of the programme, and under his dynamic leadership, some of the most innovative work in implementing MGNREGA on watershed principles has been initiated. Nitish Kumar, as Chief Minister of Bihar, worked hard to explore imaginative, decentralised solutions to the flood problem, using resources available under MGNREGA. Tamil Nadu, under Ms. Jayalalithaa, has been one of the best performing States. And the Chief Minister of Odisha has taken important steps in recent years to make MGNREGA a success in the tribal regions of the State...........click for more

Source: The Hindu