HYDERABAD: The state government has expressed its opposition to the rules of Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission Gramin Act (VB
G RAM G Act), especially the one related to adopting the 16th Finance Commission’s horizontal devolution formula for allocation of funds for implementation of this Act.
Following a decision taken in this regard by the state Cabinet, Panchayat Raj & Rural Development Minister Danasari Anasuya alias Seethakka wrote a letter to Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to this effect.
The state government proposed certain amendments to the Act. In her letter, the minister said that the “certain rules are contrary to the intent and structure of the Act”.
“The state government opposes these rules in general and Rule 4 in particular that prescribes the 16th Finance Commission’s horizontal devolution formula for allocation of funds for implementing the Act, as being unjust, anti-poor, anti-tribal and anti-Dalit.
The proposed formula lumps the whole state as one — ignoring the intra-state variations in development. The intent of VB GRAM G Act is to allow planning at the gram panchayat level, whereas the rules treat the state as a unit for allocation of funds,” she said.
‘Include housing scheme in list of permissible works’
Meanwhile, the minister urged the Centre to include construction of houses under state housing schemes as a permissible work under the Act, similar to the provisions available under MGNREGA.
She explained: “Under MGNREGA, 90 days of unskilled wage employment was provided in the state housing schemes. But the state-sponsored housing schemes are now excluded from VB GRAM G which results in deprivation of 90 days of unskilled wage employment for the beneficiaries.”
The minister also proposed to include individual land development works, nutri gardens, bamboo plantation and others in the permissible works under the Act.
She also requested the Centre to remove the proposed 60-day employment holiday. “If removal is not feasible, exemption for 60 days ‘no work’ period may be given and wage employment enabled in all agriculture activities, scheduled tribal areas, aspirational blocks identified by NITI Aayog, plantation activities and housing programmes,” she added.
