Left parties oppose linking MGNREGS with agriculture

Hyderabad: The left party leaders are against the linking of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) with agriculture in the State.

While the leaders belonging to the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi wanted linking of MGNREGS with agriculture, those belonging to the left parties have been opposing it.

The left party leaders have launched an agitation against the proposals to link MGNREGS with agriculture. The Congress leaders have been vociferously demanding the lining of agriculture and MGNREGS.

Chief Minister and TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao had argued in favour of linking MGNREGS works with agriculture several times.

Speaking to The Hans India Congress Kisan Cell national vice chairman M Kodanda Reddy said linking of MGNREGS with agriculture was a must. He said this would ease the burden on the farmers.

He said at present the farmers have been forced to cough up Rs 1,000 per hour to the tractors and Rs 2,000 per hour for harvesting machines.

The charges of the tractors have rose from Rs 300 per hour to Rs 1,000 and the harvesters pay from Rs 800 per hour to Rs 2,000 per hour.

He said the farmers were forced to wait for days together for the harvesting machines. He said with the use of harvesting machines lot of wastage has been taking place.

In Punjab the farmers have been burning the stubs leading to pollution. He said if the agriculture is fully mechanised, MGNREGS could be kept away from it.

But in our country only harvesting is done by the machines. Rest of the works is done manually. Kodanda Reddy said as the MGNREGS works are executed during the sowing and harvesting seasons, the farmers were unable to get the labour in time.

Due to the delay in sowing and harvesting the farmers were at loss. However, the left party leaders have been opposing it. Telangana Agriculture Labour Association president B Prasad said linking the MGNREGS with agriculture would bring back the bonded labour system.

He said MGNREGS Act has been introduced to provide work to the labour when they did not get work. He said if MGNREGS is linked to agriculture the spirit of the Act would be defeated.

Prasad said already 49 per cent of the funds have been diverted from the MGNREGS towards contract works. If the remaining 51 per cent is also diverted the labour would be left with nothing.

He said due to the introduction of MGNREGS the bargaining power of the labour has rose in the rural areas. He said if MGNREGS is linked to agriculture the labour would lose their wages.