Employment Guarantee and Decentralisation

Protagonists of the National Employment Guarantee Scheme do favour entrusting the programme to panchayats and incorporating provisions to this end in the national law. But this aspect is not articulated as strongly and emphatically in the public debate on the subject as on issues relating to scale and coverage. The campaign for a wider and better funded NEGS must be combined with a campaign to generate strong public opinion and mobilise elected panchayatdars all over the country to bring pressure on the central and state governments to strengthen democratic panchayats and empower them to plan and implement all local development programmes.