Our Bureau The Centre has set up a Chief Ministers’ sub-group to coordinate policy approaches for agriculture and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

A NITI Aayog statement said the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh will be the convener while his counterparts in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim, along with NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand will be members of this group.

The group will suggest a wider choice of State-specific interventions, both for pre-sowing and post-harvest, to further improve the thrust on incomes, water conservation and waste-to-wealth. It will also seek to align works under MGNREGS fully to the requirements of achieving the goal of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. This is expected to improve the thrust on water conservation, individual beneficiary schemes, construction of rural haats and vermi-composting, among others.

The statement said the sub-group will meet for the first time by July and submit its report within three months from its date of constitution.

It will make recommendations on interventions of MGNREGS that can help bring down agrarian distress, including work availability, wage rates and seasonality. The possibilities of MGNREGS as a livelihood resource for small and marginal farmers, specially belonging to SC/ST households, will also be explored.

Aligning MGNREGS and its livelihood thrust with women self-help groups, producer groups and producer companies will be on the agenda of the sub-group. It will also explore successful convergence of programme resources across departments to ensure optimal fund utilisation, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

The sub-group was formed after a unanimous decision taken at the fourth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog on June 17.

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