By IANS,
Shimla : Himachal Pradesh has linked snow-clearing with the central government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), a minister said here Sunday.
“This year, for the first time the government has allowed works to reopen snow-covered roads in Lahaul and Spiti district under MNREGA,” Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Jairam Thakur told IANS.
He said the central government had not given any directions in this regard. “There is a provision under MNREGA to maintain a rural road network. Snow clearance works also come under its purview,” he said.
The state government issued guidelines in this regard in January and is executing works through local panchayats.
Thakur said Rs.23.51 lakh has been sanctioned so far for reopening 24 link roads in the district.
The climatic conditions of Lahaul and Spiti are harsh as much of the land falls under a cold desert where temperature plummets to as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius during winter.
Officials of the public works department said many interior roads in the district remain cut off for over three months owing to heavy snowfall. The district can’t be accessed by road from December onwards, making life really tough for the locals.
“Now the government is employing local labourers under MNREGA. During winter, it is a boom for them as most of the developmental projects come to a standstill. Snow clearance is only employment generating avenue,” said local legislator Ram Lal Markandey.
Lal Chand, a resident of Sissu village in Lahaul Valley, said snow cutting has provided sufficient working days to the locals, especially womenfolk. “During winter this landlocked valley is cut off from rest of the world. There is no routine activity like tilling fields and collecting fodder. So snow clearing is a good employment initiative of the government.”
Lahaul Valley, comprising more than two dozen small, scattered villages, remains snow bound with little road connectivity.
The Lahaulis, as the local people are called, are mostly farmers and grow mainly peas and potatoes. The valley’s seed potatoes are in great demand in states like West Bengal, Punjab, Bihar and Karnataka.
During 2005-10, the state generated 617.70 lakh person days of employment under MNREGA by spending Rs.1,039.63 crore, benefitting 4.97 lakh rural households, says a Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) report.