The Karnataka Agriculture Prices Commission is in favour of tweaking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to pay farmers who work on their own fields.
“I think we have reached a stage where the State government should amend the Act to make it possible for farmers to get paid for working on their own field,” T.N. Prakash Kammaradi, chairman of the commission, told presspersons here on Wednesday.
“It will address the issue of labour scarcity and help farmers create permanent assets on their fields,” he said. He will send a request to the State government to change the Act and hoped it will be forwarded to the Union government.
Recommendations
The commission, that was formed six months ago, has sent two interim reports to the State government with various recommendations. He will send another set of recommendations soon.
It will include putting in place an automatic system of market interventions by which the government will buy grains or other farm produce, whenever the prices fall in the open market. It will also recommend hiking the revolving fund to Rs. 5,000 crore, he said.
