Committee to examine using MNREGA in agriculture
New Delhi, June 17: The Central government is mulling to link MNREGA with the agriculture sector in a way that the rural employment scheme and the demands of labour in agriculture complement each other, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said here on Sunday.
The government has formed a seven-member committee of the Chief Ministers to examine the feasibility of the idea and the way to implement it, he said.
"The committee would examine the feasibility of using the employment generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in agriculture related activities both pre-harvest and post-harvest," Rajiv Kumar said.
The committee, headed by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and comprising his counterparts Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Vijay Rupani (Gujarat), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), N. Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Pawan Chamling (Sikkim), would be notified on Monday.
Under MNREGA, the Central government has to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed employment involving unskilled manual work in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand.
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Woman mauled to death by leopard near Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Nov 18: A 52-year-old woman was mauled to death by a leopard near here, officials said on Monday.
Kariamma had gone to cut grass at an agricultural field near her home at Kambalu, Gollarahatti, in Nelamangala taluk in Bengaluru Rural district on Sunday evening when the incident happened, they said.
The field, where she was working, was adjacent to a forest which is frequented by leopards, and warnings were also issued to villagers in recent times to not venture into the vicinity. There were instances of leopard killing dogs and other strays, a senior forest officer said.
"The woman, who is into rearing cattle, went to the agricultural field to cut grass and was allegedly dragged by the leopard into the forest area where the big cat mauled her to death and consumed parts of her body from head to chest," he said.
When she did not return, her family members went searching for her and discovered her half-eaten body and reported it to the forest officials, he added.
A 30 member team of leopard task force, 30 staff and 10 officers of the forest department reached the site along with forensic experts to take samples of the hair, blood stains and footprints of the leopard in order to catch the big cat, the officer said.
"Twenty huge cages have also been installed in and around the area in an attempt to catch the leopard involved in the killing," he said.
